The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-17


 Jane hurried anxiously into the office greeted by Tommy, the small guardian of the outer portal.
 'The boss was askin' fer yer" Miss Brown he told her. With sinking heart Jane entered the main office room, and saw a newcomer in the establishment, little stood-shouldered man burrowing into some enormous ledgers at the high desk between the big windows He paid no attention to her. so engrossed did he seem, and Jane could not distinguish his features in her hurried glance.
 As she entered H. Montague Mortimers s private sanctum her employer looked up from some notes which he was discussing with Hoskins. the man she had met ear Her in the day.
 Glad to see you. Miss Brown. thought you had been lost" he said. puff fling away at his cigar almost absent minded in his manner.
 I'm so sorry," said Jane, "but I just came from a friend of mine who was taken i'll and had to be sent home.
 Jane did not observe the figure of Pe- dro Cabannello, Mortimer's Latin-Amer- ican salesman, standing at the open door. There was a sheer on his swarthy feat ures as he overheard the words.
 He turned away from the door and sought his own desk.
 ''Oh, that's all right, Miss Brown" an- swered Mortimer, easily. 'I told you to take couple of hours off. Now, we're going to be busy for the next few weeks and I hope for the next few years Will you please type this memorandum of a contract between myself and MT. Hos kins?"
 Jane lost no time in hanging up her hat near the stenographers desk. and soon had made a neat rescript of the memorandum. It gave her queer start as she read the terms, by which Hos kins was to receive 50 per cent commits sion on all sales made by Miss A. Mrs. B." and Madame x,' as the contract strangely expressed it. What a queer arrangement, and what an odd way to indicate sales people, thought Jane, as her slim fingers nimbly clicked away at the copying desk. Well, just another funny side of New York methods, presume" Completing the task, she handed the sheets to Mortimer, whose quick eye ran over the words
 Not a letter or comma missing, Hos-
 
 other. Some lady wizard on the stand ard keyboard eh?''
 Jane blushed at the compliment. She turned a deeper red as Hoskins, still chewing the ragged end of his unit cigar. looked steadily at her under his shaggy eyebrows, and nodded his head. Just the type we want, Monty" he affir/ed earnestly. T wish she were wording on my team, but maybe you can teae:l her that end of the game before | lorg."
 1 Jane did not understand, and quietly 1 looked out of the window to conceal her 1 embarrassment She could not fathom his reference to the team." the game, | nor even the possibility of being taught lit "before long, Her game was secre- tarial work. and in this peculiarly TUT office she felt that. like the traditional cobbler. she would do we'll to stick tc her last"
 1 Mortimer and Hoskins signed the two contracts, and then her employer asked her to witness the signatures. giving her hor.e address on the line below the name | She did not observe Hoskins jotting dowr on the edge of his cuff that same ad- dress at Mrs. Selden's boarding house ! in the Thirties; Mortimer was equally oblivious to the act and blandly asked Jane to summon another witness. Get old Marshall" he said. That's the bookkeeper. He's nice, respectable iwitness, I'm sure.
 | Jane stepped to the door and ap- | preached the elderly man at the high desk She explained the nature of Morti- mer's request, and he hurried into the private office, shutting the door behind him. As Jane hesitated before enter ling once more, Cabanello, with discon- certing smile on his dark face, addressed her in a low voice.
 Well. senorita, you have little work to do. eh? A nice easy job with the boss SC friendly, eh? Rather lucky for coun- try girl to step into. eh?'
 The color flew to lanes cheeks and then left them pallid, as the insinuatinn