things I gave the best I
had in stock to get to the front. Did I get there? Not quite!" he
throws away the cigarette he's hardly had a puff of. "Why?" he asks
me. "Because in every trade or profession there's somebody with half
the sand and ability, who don't know the job's requirements but knows
the boss's son! I'm not a quitter or I wouldn't be here, but I'm sick
and disgusted with this thing called life and--"

"And that's why you never got nowhere!" breaks in a voice behind
us--and there's Eddie Duke. Adams flushes up and starts away, but
Eddie pulls him back.

"Listen to me, young feller!" he says. "I happened to hear your moan
just now and your dope is all wrong. There ain't no such thing as
luck; if there was, a blacksmith is the luckiest guy in the world and
oughta make a million a minute, because he's handlin' nothin' but
horseshoes all day long, ain't he? Forget about that luck stuff!
Makin' good is all in the way you look at it, anyways. A bricklayer
makin' thirty bucks a week, raisin' a family and bringin' home his pay
every Saturday night in his pocket instead of on his breath, is makin'
good as big as J. P. Morgan is--d'ye get me? Yes, sir, that bird can
say he's got over! Makin' good is like religion, every other guy has a
different idea of what it means, but there's many a feller swingin' a
pick that's makin' good just as much as the bird that owns the
ditch--in his own way! You claim a guy's got to know somebody these
days to get over, eh? Well, you got that one right, I'll admit it!"

"Of course!" says Adams, brightenin' up. "That's my argument and--"

"That ain't no argument, that's a whine!" sneers Duke, cuttin' him off
short. "Listen to me--you bet you gotta know somebody to get
anywheres, _you gotta know yourself_! That's all! Just lay off
thinkin' how lucky the other guy is, and give Stephen X. You a minute's
attention. You may be the biggest guy in the world at _somethin'_, if
you'll only check up on yourself and see what that somethin' is!
Remember Whosthis says, 'Full many a rose is born to blush unseen--'
Well, don't be one of them desert flowers; come into the city and let
'em all watch you blush. Get me? How did you happen to meet this big
stiff De Vronde?"

Adams gets pale for a second and clears his throat.

"I'm working for him," he says slowly, like he's thinkin' over each
word before lettin' it go, "and I don't care to discuss him."

At just that minute, De