e. But, sir, it does not catch me. I shall not
work for you and the other strong men, and patiently wait my turn that
would never come. My time is _now_."

"You threaten me!" cried Galloway furiously.

"Threaten you?" exclaimed Norman, amazed.

"You think, because I have given you, my lawyer, my secrets, that you
can compel me----"

With an imperious gesture Norman stopped him. "Good day, sir," he said
haughtily. "Your secrets are safe with me. I am a lawyer, not a
financier."

Galloway was disconcerted. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Norman," he said. "I
misunderstood you. I thought I heard you say in effect that you purposed
to be rich, and that you purposed to compel me to make you so."

"So I did," replied Norman. "But not by the methods you financiers are
so adept at using. Not by high-class blackmail and blackjacking. I meant
that my abilities were such that you and your fellow masters of modern
society would be compelled to employ me on my own terms. A few moments
ago you outlined to me a plan. It may be you can find other lawyers
competent to steer it through the channel of the law. I doubt it. I may
exaggerate my value. But--" He smiled pleasantly--"I don't think so."

In this modern world of ours there is no more delicate or more important
branch of the art of material success than learning to play one's own
tune on the trumpets of fame. To those who watch careers intelligently
and critically, and not merely with mouth agape and ears awag for
whatever sounds the winds of credulity bear, there is keen interest in
noting how differently this high art is practiced by the
fame-seekers--how well some modest heroes disguise themselves before
essaying the trumpet, how timidly some play, how brazenly others. It is
an art of infinite variety. How many there are who can echo
Shakespeare's sad lament, through Hamlet's lips--"I lack advancement!"
Those are they who have wholly neglected, as did Shakespeare, this
essential part of the art of advancement--Shakespeare, who lived almost
obscure and was all but forgotten for two centuries after his death.

Norman, frankly seeking mere material success, and with the colossal
egotism that disdains egotism and shrugs at the danger of being accused
of it--Norman did not hesitate to proclaim his own merits. He reasoned
that he had the wares, that crying them would attract attention to them,
that he whose attention was attracted, if he were a judge of wares and a
seeker of the bes