“What is this; another Development Company?” I demanded.
“Ha! ha! not this time. No, this is straight. If you'll say that you'll work for me I'll make an opening for you in my New York office.”
I did not answer. I was trying to fathom the motive behind this new move.
“I'll put you to work in my office,” he went on. “It may not be much to begin with, but you can make it anything you like; that'll be up to you. As to salary—well, I don't know what you're getting in that one-horse bank, but I'll double it, whatever it is. That will be the start, of course. After that it is up to you, as I said.”
“Mr. Colton this may be a good joke, but I don't see it—yet.”
“I don't joke often in business; can't afford to.”
“You are really serious? You mean what you say?”
“Yes.”
“But why? You don't know anything about me.”
“I know all that is necessary. And I have found out that you are all right, so far as bank work goes. That fellow Taylor and some others told me that. But I didn't need their telling. Why, man, it is part of my trade to know men when I see them. I have to know 'em. I said a while ago that you didn't belong in this forsaken hole of a town. God knows it IS forsaken! Even my wife is beginning to admit that, and she was the keenest to come here. Some day I shall get sick of it and sell out, I suppose.”