. For
that matter, he was fully equal to the interests at stake. Harrasford, a
great judge of men, intrusted everything to Jimmy, the sensational
bill-topper, removed above all jealousy; and he left it to his experience
to construct the program. Harrasford himself, the chief and master, rarely
left London; he managed all his theaters from his office, with the 'phone
at his ear, or else flew like the wind in every direction, buying a
theater here, picking up a star there, on the wing. It was not until the
third week that he came to see for himself how the work was doing and to
discuss the accounts. His broad back was seen, followed by Jimmy, to
plunge down the plastery corridors, to pass under the

scaffoldings. He looked like a conqueror, tracing with his finger the plan
of the palace that was to rise upon the ruins of the destroyed city; or
else he would point out things with a jerk of the chin:

"The proscenium pushed forward to here, eh, Jimmy? A cluster of electric
lights here. Another there. And what about your trick, Jimmy?"

"You must imagine the house in darkness," said Jimmy, "and blue and green
rays falling on the stage from above. Through the blue, we send a great
dazzling beam, from over there, lighting up every inch of the house, a
terrific light, the light of the Last Judgment...."

"Good!" said Harrasford. "We want two or three fits of hysterics at the
opening, real ones, not hired at two bob a night," he added, with a wink.
"They're working, up there," he continued, a piece of old plastering
falling on his shoulder, as they crossed the floor of the house, denuded
of its seats.

"It's the opening in the roof," said Jimmy. "I should have liked to show
you ... the staircase is blocked with scaffoldings ..."

But Harrasford, at the risk of breaking his neck, had already grasped the
rungs of a provisional ladder, made of spokes stuck through one of the
four beams which rose from the floor to the ceiling and supported it,
while the whole of the space between them was being opened. The architect
was there when Harrasford came out on the roof. He showed him four piers
of strong masonry which were being built against the outer walls,
explained that two T irons of considerable strength would rest with their
ends on the piers and run across the roofing from wall to wall. Two other
irons, also parallel, but running lengthwise, would be bolted to the first
two. This arrangement would make a horizontal frame of t