erily, "I didn't expect you for
half an hour."

"I thought I'd start well," she smiled.

She had had many misgivings that morning, and had spent a restless night
debating the wisdom of engaging herself to an employer whose known
weakness had made his name a by-word. But a promise was a promise and,
after all, she told herself, her promise was fulfilled when she had
given the new work a trial.

"Here is your desk," he said, indicating a large office table in the
centre of the room, "and here is my little library. You will note that
it mainly consists of agricultural returns and reports--do you read
French?" She nodded. "Good, and Spanish--that's rather too much to
expect, isn't it?"

"I speak and read Spanish very well," she said. "When I was a little
girl I lived around in Paris, Lyons, and Barcelona--my first regular
work--the first I was paid for--was in the Anglo-Spanish Cable office in
Barcelona."

"That's lucky," he said, apparently relieved, "though I could have
taught you the few words that it is necessary you should know to
understand the Argentine reports. What I particularly want you to
discover--and you will find two or three hundred local guide-books on
that shelf at the far end of the room, and these will help you a great
deal--is the exact locations of all the big wheat-growing districts, the
number of hectares under cultivation in normal times, the method by
which the wheat areas are divided--by fences, roads, etc.--the average
size of the unbroken blocks of wheatland and, if possible, the width of
the roads or paths which divide them."

"Gracious!" she cried in dismay.

"It sounds a monumental business, but I think you will find it simple.
The Agricultural Department of the United States Government, for
instance, tabulate all those facts. For example, they compel farmers in
certain districts to keep a clear space between each lot so that in
case of the crops being fired, the fire may be isolated. Canada, the
Argentine and Australia have other methods."

She had seated herself at the desk and was jotting down a note of her
duties.

"Anything more?" she asked.

"Yes--I want the names of the towns in the centre of the wheat-growing
areas, a list of the hotels in those towns. The guide-books you will
find up to date, and these will inform you on this subject. Particularly
do I want hotels noted where automobiles can be hired, the address of
the local bank and the name of the manager and, where