The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-08-17
CHAPTER l

marty IL tie dlt6TuOOQ OF ceTIdlu
Saturday Jim Stanley stood at one of
the windows of his lofty office looking
out at q panorama of which he seldom
tired. Away, through the haze OF the
late afternoon, he could see glimpse
of New York harbor. with its busy
traffic, and In the far background
huge dim figure vaguely stabbed the
murk with Its uplifted torch. he
gaZed upon II In silence for time and
then with sigh and a gesture of i'm
patience be turned, sat down and be-
gan to dictate somewhat irritably to
the audiphOne upon his desk.
''Of course there is always the pos
Sibility of error IN these calculations,
and 1t would be wise to allow con.
siderable margin of safety, therefore;
but on the whole we are in a position
TO say that we think well of the prop.
osition. If you wish, shall be glad
TO discuss the matter at length and in
detail. Very sincerely yours"
he switched off the machine, took
another letter from the heap awaiting
his attention. and attempted to pin his
mind on it. For some reason be was
unable TO do so. He tidgeted a mo-
ment, rose and walked again to the
window and Looked upon the far-fung
panorama Of Manhattan.
Now, this indecisior or, better, per
turbation. was not a, all characteristic
of this young man. Anyone who knew
him well, watching him now, would
have sensed that something had dis
turbed him deeply. He ran his hand
through his brown hair with a gesture
OF discomfort and turning at length
again to his desk ne rang the bell and
said to the grsy-haired little man who
entered:
Frank, when you leave the Office
this afternoon you will find O'Hara
waiting with the car. | shan't need
him again today. Take the audiphone
and all this heap of correspondence
on the desk, hand them TO O'Hara, and
tell him to take the whole lot down TO
the country and have Jefferson put
them on the desk in the library"
"But l understood. sir" objected the
secretary, that you had planned to
spend the weekend playing golf at
Southampton"
That's so, Frank" responded Stan
ley, but | find | can't do it Please
get MIR. Roberts on the phone and ex.
plain to him that unexpected and Inn
perative business will detain me. Be
SIS apologize as you know how.
Grovel for me, Frank, grOvel."
Wilson smiled. "Yes, sir" he said.
81 shall grovel abjectly."
"Great invention the audiphone,"
continued Stanley, casting an interest
ed eye upon the machine. you can
dictate for hours without having a
stupid stenOgrapher around saying,
what's that, sir? or How do you
spell cat, sirT Talk as fast as you
please, talk as slowly as you please.
the machine doesn't get restless. 1t
doesn't fix its hair or tap the floor
with its foot, and thank God II doesn't
chew gum ("
Eyes, sir,". smiled Wilson, lit Ger
tainly has some advantages over the
female of the species, but doesn't it
sometimes get out Of orderW
well" replied Stanley, "the female
of the species has been known to do
that, toe."
Employer and employee smiled to-
gether at this feeble jest. You would
have guessed that relations between
them were not wholly formal AMI Off
cial, and you would have guessed
right. Wilson was more than secre-
tary, he was a thoroughly confidential
assistant. In fact he knew much
more about the business of the firm
than ROllin Waterman, who was not
only Stanley's partner but his life
long friend as well. And Ii was not
only the business OF the firm with
which he was we'll acquainted. he
knew much more about the private
lives of both the members of tn, firm
than either of them guessed--perhaps
q good deal more than one of them
would have liked, and he was thinking
of that particular one when Stanley
turned and mentioned his name.
hasn't come in yet?"
mot yet, sir"
Stanley hesitated an instant, and
then tossed his head with an air of
decision. "When he does. say I'd like
to see him."
''Yes, sir, WILL" answered the sec
rotary.
The door had scarcely closed behind
Wilson when upon the other side of
Stanley's office another door opened
and there entered briskly' a young
woman, clad in the business tweeds of
Wall Street. She was dark, good
looking girl of twenty-three or twenty.
four, with assurance written large
upon her handsome face and radiating
from her eyes of Spanish black.
Stanley turned upon her entrance
swell, Miss Morgani" he said.
"Here is a letter." she said in her
clipped voiced, (which Mr.. Waterman
asked me to call your attention to-"
he took the letter and read II swift.
ly. Then he faced the girl with glance
of dissatisfaction As he said: ''Why.
this is dated three days ago. II should
have been attended to before. What
happened to it?"
'It got mislaid some way" she an
swered.
81 sec. 1t just crawled steaithily
away and hid itself, | suppose-just
out of spite"
The girl looked sulkily at the floor
sI'll see Mr.. Waterman about it.
After all you're his secretary. not
mine"