yes seemed to be
seeing the big old monster city open its thousand gleaming eyes and
change its roar of the day to an incessant purr of a night-stalking
beast, but in reality he was seeing and hearing a month into the future,
and the spectacle thus pre-visioned was the first night of "The Purple
Slipper" on Broadway. Then very suddenly he came back into his conscious
self and went into action. He rang the buzzer for Mr. Adolph Meyers.

"Pops, get Grant Howard on the wire and ask him to come around here as
quick as he can make it. If he talks straight wait an hour for him, if
he's thick-tongued go after him yourself. Get him! Now put me on the
wire with Rooney if you can find him, and make appointments with
Lindenberg for scenery at eleven in the morning. Ask Corbett to send an
artist to talk costumes for a period play at eleven-thirty, and have
Gerald Height here at twelve sharp. Don't forget to engage that
good-looking youngster--Leigh, I think is the name--even if you have to
give him a hundred advance. That's all for the present. Get Rooney for
me." Mr. Vandeford turned to his desk and began making rapid notes on a
pad with a huge, black, press pencil. For five minutes he spread his
thoughts upon the paper in great smudges; then his telephone rang, and
he took up the receiver:

. . . . . .

"Yes, this is Mr. Vandeford speaking. Hello, Billy!"

. . . . . .

"That new Hawtry play is beginning to promise something. I'm delaying it
a week, and I want you to come into it with your sleeves rolled up. We
may make a sure-fire hit of it."

. . . . . .

"Oh, no, I'll keep right on getting 'The Rosie Posie Girl' in shape, and
shunt Hawtry into it as soon as she cinches the public in this play--or
fails."

. . . . . .

"That was just what I was going to hand you--you get four hundred a week
for this show, but you'll have to go in and earn it. It's a departure,
and you may not like it. You'll have to hammer it a lot, but I'm not
signing a single 'Rosie Posie' contract until I see this in shape."

. . . . . .

"I mean it. A stage manager has to take my stuff all hot even if he
thinks some of it is cold. Get me?"

. . . . . .

"That's good. I'll give you the completed manuscript Saturday so you can
pound and set it for Monday next."

. . . . . .

"That's good. By!"

With which short, but sure, wire-pulling Mr. Vandeford opened his
campaign to double-cross his own original plans. He had hardly st