newspaper as a bat and had nearly hit the coffee cup which his neighboring luncher was conveying to his lips.
"Sorry," replied Speedy, smiling but undisturbed.
But the spell was broken. He consulted his watch, drank the last of his own coffee, thrust the newspaper into his pocket and rose briskly to his feet.
Five minutes later he swung into the marble and brass entrance of the Consolidated Steel Company building on lower Wall Street. An elevator crowded with returning lunchers whisked him up to the sixteenth floor. Speedy smiled at the blonde chewing gum behind the combination information desk and telephone switchboard as he passed her and hurried through the swinging gate into the office. She smiled back, though she was not the smiling type. There was something about the blithe Speedy's smiles that made you return them. At the same time the girl felt like shaking her head a little dolefully. This good-looking young man had only been there a week and she feared he would not last much longer. He was too cheerful and happy-go-lucky to appeal to the boss, Mr. Talbott, office manager of Consolidated. Moreover, the office gossip was that Talbott had already reprimanded him severely upon several occasions.
Speedy hustled into the wardrobe located just off the big office and took his somewhat frayed working coat and green eyeshade off his hook. He changed his coat, donned the eyeshade and was ready for the afternoon's toil. Other clerks were
