"Here, take it!" she said, and drawing her hand away quickly, left a
roll of bills in Jimmy's hand.




CHAPTER XVI.

JIMMY THROWS A BLUFF.

That afternoon Mr. Harold Bince had entered his superior's office with
an afternoon paper in his hand.

"What's the idea of this ad, Mr. Compton?" he asked. "Why do we need an
efficiency expert? I wish you had let me know what you intended doing."

"I knew that if I told you, Harold, you would object," said the older
man, "and I thought I would have a talk with several applicants before
saying anything about it to any one. Of course, whoever we get will work
with you, but I would rather not have it generally known about the
plant. There seems to be a leak somewhere and evidently we are too close
to the work to see it ourselves. It will require an outsider to discover
it."

"I am very much opposed to the idea," said Bince. "These fellows usually
do nothing more than disrupt an organization. We have a force that has
been here, many of them, for years. There is as little lost motion in
this plant as in any in the country, and if we start in saddling these
men with a lot of red tape which will necessitate their filling out