“So far as obtaining employment is concerned,” remarked the skipper as he took down, filled and lit his briar-root pipe, “you two lads seem to have started on even terms, both of you having got a job to-day; it now remains to be seen which will pull out ahead.”
“Oh, there isn’t any doubt about that,” replied Joe, heartily. “I take my hat off to my friend Dick first, last, and always.”
“Come, Joe, you’re laying it on thick, aren’t you?” laughed his chum.
“Not on your life. I’ll leave it to Captain Beasley. Five weeks ago you left the Corner with a measly sixteen dollars in your pocket; to-night you could count out eight hundred and fifty made by your business smartness, and I have one hundred and fifty acquired through my connection with you. We are not in the same class, old chappie. I haven’t got your head. If I had, I’d back myself to win a million in a year or two.”
Dick spent his first day in Mr. Nesbitt’s office learning many of the details connected with real estate management, and that evening he visited the lawyer’s family, on West Seventy-second Street, where he received a warm welcome from Jennie and Mrs. Nesbitt, who was an invalid.
After that he became a regular visitor, and Miss Jennie introduced him into her own particular set in which his winning manners and good looks soon established him a first favorite.
One of the estates Mr. Nesbitt had charge of was situated about thirty miles out on Long Island, and Dick went there once a week to attend to business matters in connection with its management.
He was returning one afternoon on a Long Island Railroad train when a young man boarded the car at a way station and took the only vacant seat, which was alongside Dick.
He looked to be a bright fellow, with a frank, ingenuous countenance that naturally inspired confidence; but he looked pale and weak as though recovering from a long illness.
Dick got into conversation with him, and soon found out he was an Englishman, who had come to America more than a year before after having been thrown on his own resources by the death of his only relative.