"On my way back from St. Paul, Mr. McLaughlin," he said--and Perkins,
recognizing the premonitory symptoms, crossed to the window and stood
with his back to his partner and "the cage man"--"Mr. McLaughlin,"
Skinner repeated after a pause, "I've been thinking that the most
valuable man to any concern is the one that gets the business for it."

"Right-o!" said McLaughlin.

"And the hardest man to get," Skinner went on, "is the customer you get
back. You not only have to pry him loose from some other concern with
better figures, but you have his personal pride to overcome. To come
back is a surrender."

"All of which means that you expect a raise, eh, Skinner?"

"I was only going to suggest--"

"You don't have to suggest. We've already decided to raise you
twenty-five dollars a week. How does that strike you? Just as a mark
of appreciation."

"I can't see any appreciation in it unless you take me out of the
cage--for this reason," said Skinner. "As a 'cage man' I'm not worth
much more than I 've been getting. In order to earn that extra
twenty-five dollars a week I 've got to have a chance to show what I
can do further. Take me out of the cage."

"Skinner," said McLaughlin, "you didn't for a minute think that we were
going to keep a man that could pull off such a trick as that in a cage,
did you? We're going to make you a salesman."

The idea of going on the road did n't appeal to Skinner.

"To be frank, Mr. McLaughlin, I want something better than that."

"Better?"

"Yes. I want to be put in charge of the sales department. You see, I
not only know the business from beginning to end, but I want to show
our salesmen that selling goods means something more than rattling off
a list of what you've got, dilating like a parrot. I want to teach
them the value of knowledge of the personal equation and how to apply
that knowledge effectively. Does n't that telegram from Jackson show
that I know something about it?"

"What do you think of Skinner's proposition?" McLaughlin said to the
junior partner.

Perkins turned and came back to the table. "Skinner seems to have the
goods."

"Mr. McLaughlin," Skinner urged, "it is n't that I feel big about what
I've done, it is n't that I think I know more than anybody else, but
I've had ideas about things I've always wanted to put into practice.
When you sent me out to St. Paul, I formulated a little scheme of
attack on Jackson, and you saw how it worked. I th