"But see what he's done since we made him manager of the sales department," urged McLaughlin. "He has not only opened up new territory and got in new customers, but he's reclaimed old, abandoned fields of operation and got back a lot of old fellows. He's delivered the goods all along the line, Perk. Besides that, it was Skinner that got us to put in that new machinery over in Newark. Why, it's already saved a quarter of its cost in fuel. Also, Perk, he's a great little adviser."
"I know his value, Mac, as well as you do."
McLaughlin laughed. "We did n't either of us know it till we sent him out West. He kept his light under a bushel so long."
"Kept it in a cage, you mean."
"If he goes over to the Starr-Bacon people, he takes his methods with him, and you know—customers follow methods."
"What we want to do," said the junior, "is to offset the Starr-Bacon offer without you and me having to sell our machines and take to the subway in order to pay his salary. How would it do to make him general manager? Skinner's ambitious—he's looking for honor."
"No," said McLaughlin, after pondering a few moments, "if we keep him on a salary and he remains an employee only, he will still be susceptible to outside offers. The only thing to do is to make him a partner! That's the only way to keep him!"
"Make him a partner, Mac? This isn't a firm any more; it's a corporation."
"Same thing—you and I own it, don't we?"
"Quite so."