er day of it before givin' up. It was no use. They had me
buffaloed. So I thanked all hands and hinted that maybe I'd better be
goin' back. I hope I didn't deceive anyone, for I did go back--to the
hotel. But by night I'd invested $11.45 in a second-hand
outfit--warranted steam-cleaned--and I had put up $6. more for a week's
board with a Swede lady whose front porch faced the ten-foot fence
guardin' the Wondor Motors' main plant. Also, Mrs. Petersen had said it
was a cinch I could get a job. Her old man would show me where in the
mornin'.

And say, mornin' happens early out in places like that. By 5:30 A.M. I
could smell bacon grease, and by six-fifteen breakfast was all over and
Petersen had lit his corn-cob pipe.

"Coom!" says he in pure Scandinavian.

This trip, I didn't make my entrance in over the Turkish rugs of the
private office. I was lined up with a couple of dozen others against a
fence about tenth from a window where there was a "Men Wanted" sign out.
Being about as much of a mechanic as I am a brunette, I made no wild
bluffs. I just said I wanted a job. And I got it--riveter's helper,
whatever that might be. By eight-thirty my name and number was on the
payroll, and the foreman of shop No. 19 was introducin' me to my new
boss.

"Here, Mike," says he. "Give this one a try-out."

His name wasn't Mike. It was something like Sneezowski. He was a Pole
who'd come over three years ago to work for John D. at Bayonne, New
Jersey, but had got into some kind of trouble there. I didn't wonder. He
had wicked little eyes, one lopped ear, and a ragged mustache that stood
out like tushes. But he sure could handle a pneumatic riveter rapid, and
when it came to reprovin' me for not keepin' the pace he expressed
himself fluent.

In the course of a couple of hours, though, I got the hang of how to
work them rivet tongs without droppin' 'em more 'n once every five
minutes. But I think it was the grin I slipped Mike now and then that
got him to overlookin' my awkward motions. Believe me, too, by six
o'clock I felt less like grinnin' than any time I could remember. I
never knew you could ache in so many places at once. From the ankles
down I felt fine. And yet, before the week was out I was helpin' Mike
speed up.

It didn't look promisin' for sleuth work at first. Half a dozen times I
was on the point of chuckin' the job. But the thoughts of havin' to face
Old Hickory with a blank report kept me pluggin' away. I begun to