forehead. "Not a sign of fever." She sniffed
his breath. "And you've not been drinking. Go on, tell me the rest of
this... whatever it is."

"Ain't you satisfied?"

"No. I want more. I want all."

"All right. But I just want you to know, first, that the boss I used to
work for in Oakland ain't got nothin' on me. I 'm some man of affairs,
if anybody should ride up on a vegetable wagon an' ask you. Now, I 'm
goin' to tell you, though I can't see why the Glen Ellen folks didn't
beat me to it. I guess they was asleep. Nobody'd a-overlooked a thing
like it in the city. You see, it was like this: you know that fancy
brickyard they're gettin' ready to start for makin' extra special fire
brick for inside walls? Well, here was I worryin' about the six horses
comin' back on my hands, earnin' me nothin' an' eatin' me into the
poorhouse. I had to get 'm work somehow, an' I remembered the brickyard.
I drove the colt down an' talked with that Jap chemist who's been doin'
the experimentin'. Gee! They was foremen lookin' over the ground an'
everything gettin' ready to hum. I looked over the lay an' studied it.
Then I drove up to where they're openin' the clay pit--you know, that
fine, white chalky stuff we saw 'em borin' out just outside the hundred
an' forty acres with the three knolls. It's a down-hill haul, a mile,
an' two horses can do it easy. In fact, their hardest job'll be haulin'
the empty wagons up to the pit. Then I tied the colt an' went to
figurin'.

"The Jap professor'd told me the manager an' the other big guns of the
company was comin' up on the mornin' train. I wasn't shoutin' things
out to anybody, but I just made myself into a committee of welcome; an',
when the train pulled in, there I was, extendin' the glad hand of the
burg--likewise the glad hand of a guy you used to know in Oakland once,
a third-rate dub prizefighter by the name of--lemme see--yep, I got
it right--Big Bill Roberts was the name he used to sport, but now he's
known as William Roberts, E. S. Q.

"Well, as I was sayin', I gave 'm the glad hand, an' trailed along with
'em to the brickyard, an' from the talk I could see things was doin'.
Then I watched my chance an' sprung my proposition. I was scared stiff
all the time for maybe the teamin' was already arranged. But I knew it
wasn't when they asked for my figures. I had 'm by heart, an' I rattled
'm off, and the top-guy took 'm down in his note-book.

"'We're goin' into this big, an' at once,'