"But," smiled Al, "there has never been anything startling in my career."
"Eh?" gasped the reporter. "What did you say?"
Al repeated the statement.
"An advance agent without a startling career!" said the Banner man. "Why, such a thing was never heard of before. As a rule we have to cut out nine-tenths of the blood-curdling incidents in advance agents' careers, and even then what is left sounds like an Arabian Nights story."
Al laughed.
"Well," he said, "then I am a remarkable exception. Isn't that a startling fact?"
"That may help things out a little."
"Besides, it is not myself that I want to boom, but the New York Comedy Company."
"Well, you are a rara avis! But by booming yourself you may at the same time boom the show. Now, tell me all about yourself first. You see, the public is more interested about you personally than about Mr. Wattles' company. But I'll work in a good notice for the show, too. Now, then, please tell me where you were born, when—and all the rest of it."
Within ten minutes the reporter was in possession of most of the facts of Al's "career"; and, as the boy had said, there was nothing very startling in the story. But when the Banner man had wormed the fact out of the lad that his sister had been lost or stolen in infancy, he exclaimed: