h his
credentials, went by land and got there two days ahead of him.

When Tomlinson got to Tuscapulco he went into the bank and he spoke to
the junior manager and told him what he came for. "I'm awfully sorry,"
the junior manager said, "I'm afraid that this post has just been
filled." Then he went into an inner room to talk with the manager. "The
tellership that you wanted a Canadian for," he asked, "didn't you say
that you have a man already?"

"Yes," said the manager, "a brilliant young fellow from Toronto; his
name is Tomlinson, I have his credentials here--a first-class man. I've
wired him to come right along, at our expense, and we'll keep the job
open for him ten days."

"There's a young man outside," said the junior, "who wants to apply for
the job."

"Outside?" exclaimed the manager. "How did he get here?"

"Came in on the mule train this morning: says he can do the work and
wants the job."

"What's he like?" asked the manager.

The junior shook his head.

"Pretty dusty looking customer," he said. "Shifty looking."

"Same old story," murmured the manager. "It's odd how these fellows
drift down here, isn't it? Up to something crooked at home, I suppose.
Understands the working of a bank, eh? I guess he understands it a
little too well for my taste. No, no," he continued, tapping the papers
that lay on the table, "now that we've got a first-class man like
Tomlinson, let's hang on to him. We can easily wait ten days, and the
cost of the journey is nothing to the bank as compared with getting a
man of Tomlinson's stamp. And, by the way, you might telephone to the
Chief of Police and get him to see to it that this loafer gets out of
town straight off."

So the Chief of Police shut up Tomlinson in the calaboose and then sent
him down to Mexico City under a guard. By the time the police were done
with him he was dead broke, and it took him four months to get back to
Toronto; when he got there, the place in Mexico had been filled long
ago.

But I can imagine that some of my readers might suggest that I have
hitherto been dealing only with success in a very limited way, and that
more interest would lie in discussing how the really great fortunes are
made.

Everybody feels an instinctive interest in knowing how our great
captains of industry, our financiers and railroad magnates made their
money.

Here the explanation is really a very simple one. There is, in fact,
only one way to amass a huge fortune