“You’re welcome,” says Catty, with a kind of a ghost of a grin, and we went out and got on the street-car again to go back to Mr. Heminway’s office. Catty was wiggling, he was so tickled, and I says, “You act like you was goin’ to bust.”
“I be,” said he. “I calc’late I’ll bust before I git there. We’ve made some money.”
“How?” says I.
Catty grinned. “Why,” says he, “Brown & Bolger bought this lumber on contract last March when the prices was about three dollars a thousand lower ’n they be now. Three dollars a thousand lower ’n we agreed to pay for our stuff when we ordered it. We git all we need for them houses of ours, and enough to build a lot more. We’ll make nice money out of it.”
We hustled up to Mr. Heminway, who was waiting for us, and showed him the letter. He grinned at Catty. “Good stroke of business, eh? Saved some money.”
“I figger so,” says Catty.
“How’d you work it? Brown & Bolger have been pestering me for that lumber for thirty days. How did you get it away from them?”
“Luck,” says Catty, and he told the story. “Maybe it was luck,” says Mr. Heminway, “but there was business sense added to it—and all the time you made Bolger think you were doing him a favor! It’s too good to keep. And gouged him for an extra five per cent., too.... Young man, if ever you want a job, come to me.”
“I calc’late to own my own business,” says Catty. “It’s more respectable.”
“You’ll own it, all right. And you go back and tell Atkins & Phillips that as long as you’re connected with their firm they can get whatever they want from this concern. You’re a business man and you’ve got luck. I like to tie to people with luck.”