Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 7, 1928 — page 118: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

108 ders to the manufacturing department without having their credit investi- gated. Two-thirds of his mind was framing an apology to Mrs. Barker and feverishly anxious to deliver it with the flowers; the other third was engineering the work of his hands. Absently, he threw in the waste bas- ket the swindle sheets Barker had told him to go over again. They were fol- lowed by a memorandum of a meet- ing of department heads for the next afternoon which, as a consequence, he completely forgot. The rest of the accumulated litter on his desk was got rid of in an equally adroit manner, and then, just before noon, he started-work on a form letter introducing a new type of highway bulletin board which the company was putting out. He finished the first draft of the let- ter by midafternoon. At three o’clock, he chucked the letter in a drawer, locked up and left for the day. It was not his habit to quit early, but he had no desire to be made the subject of Barker’s wrath for the rest of the afternoon, so he bought the flowers and took the subway uptown. His heart pounded and little beads of cold perspiration broke out on his brow. This was not fear, but because he was not by nature a humble man, and he found it hard to subjugate his pride tc the task before him. When he rang the Barkers’ doorbell, he was admitted by a saucy maid. His card was taken in, but the maid re- turned to say that Mrs. Barker was out. “ Any message?” she demanded. “No,” said George, and departed . with his flowers. He could have left them, but it never occurred to him that the maid had told him the truth, and he had no idea of leaving flowers for a lady who refused to see him. The only other expedient he could think of was to write his apology and Ox? ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, mail it—a slow and unsatisfactory business with things becoming more and more involved at the office. He Jay awake for a long time that night, thinking alternately of his apolo- gy to Mrs. Barker and the form letter for the new bulletin boards. In the morning, things began to hap- pen. He reached the office tired and haggard. Barker had not yet arrived. George went to his desk and started writing his letter to Mrs. Barker. Barker came in at ten o’clock. He called George to his office. He threw at his assistant the batch of orders that had been sent to the manufacturing de- partment the morning before. ‘They had been sent back to have their credit looked up. “These,” said Barker, “were re- turned to us after you left the office yesterday afternoon. What’s the idea of sending them through before they go to the credit department? Do you want to bankrupt the place, you dumb What’s the matter with your head? Are you in love or something? Send those orders to credit and make it snappy. “ Incidentally, Linden, business goes on in this office until five o’clock. I tried to find you yesterday at three thirty, but you had gone. You are re- quired to stay here as long as the rest of us. If you have any business outside the office, let me know before you leave. How about those swindle sheets I sent back to you yesterday? Get a move on. Don’t stand there like you were half dead.” George swallowed his temper and said: “ Yes, sir. TIl have the reports ready very shortly.” He left the office hurriedly. He sent the orders to the credit department, then he started a search for the swin- dle sheets. It took him twenty minutes to go all through his desk and discover that he had no swindle sheets. He returned to Barker’s office. | | “IT can’t find those expense ac- COMIC JOOKS Gom