Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/89

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OCTOR Hackensaw, I'm looking for a place."

"I'm sorry, my friend, but we have no vacancy at present."

"My name is Phessenden Keene. Although I left school at the age of fifteen, I have studied at home and have the equivalent of a college education. I am very anxious to study inventing, and having heard a great deal about your marvelous inventions, I should like very much to work for you."

"I'm sorry, hut as I said before, there is no vacancy at present. In fact, this is the dull season and I have more men on hand now than I know what to do with."

Phessenden Keene smiled. "I know," said he, "that you have no vacancy for an ordinary man, but I am sure you have one for me!"

Doctor Hackensaw looked up in surprise at this conceited statement and was about to make an angry reply, but a look at the clean-cut, intelligent features of the young man before him, caused him to hold his tongue. The young fellow evidently had a strong will, for he continued:

"I know my own value better than you know it. I am so sure that you have a vacancy for me that I am willing to come to work for you for nothing."

"Thank you," replied Doctor Hackensaw, coldly, "but I desire to pay my assistants for their work. Besides, as I said before, there is no work for you to do."

"I'll find work," replied the young man confidently,—"and plenty of it. Besides, I am willing to do all the dirtiest and most disagreeable work on the place. I will black the boots, clean out the spittoons or the drains, attend to the furnace, shovel snow and so on. I will be your porter and carry heavy bundles for you to any part of the city."

IVE him a trial, Pop," whispered Miss Pep Perkins, who, seated at her typewriter, had overheard the conversation and was pleased with the young man's looks.

"How can you live if I don't pay you any salary?" asked Doctor Hackensaw of the young man.

"I have a couple of hundred dollars laid by that I saved penny by penny from my wages on a ranch, where I worked for a while. I can make that last me for a year, and I know that long before that time I can convince you that my services are invaluable."

"And if I am not convinced?"

"In that case, I won't ask for anything."

"Very well, I'll engage you on your own terms. You are to do all the hardest and most disagreeable work on the place and are not to receive a cent in return."

"Thank you."

"When will you begin?"

"Right away! I see the windows in the next room haven't been washed for a month. I'll begin by cleaning those—" and five minutes later, provided with a pail of water and a rag, the young fellow was industriously polishing away at the windows, which soon shone as they had never shone before.

"Well, Pep," asked the doctor, "what do you think of that young fellow and his proposition?"

"I don't know what to think, but I like his looks."

"So do I. But for all that he may be a burglar, and may be choosing this means to learn where all the valuables on the place are kept. I have millions of dollars worth of unpatented ideas that an intelligent chap like him could steal."

"He looks like an honest fellow."

"Looks don't count for much. The only other explanation I can see for his offer, is that he has fallen in love with you, Pep, and has chosen this way of coming near you." And Doctor Hackensaw smiled mischievously.

"Nonsense!" cried Pep, blushing, but seemingly not at all displeased with the idea.

Whatever the reason, young Keene soon made his services veritably invaluable. He came early and stayed late and worked industriously all the time. One of his first jobs was to make a grand house-cleaning. Room by room he went over the whole establishment, opening every neglected cupboard and cleaning it thoroughly. He timed his work so well, and did it so neatly as never to occasion discomfort to anyone. He did more. He made a card catalogue of every document and every object in the place with a hieroglyph, to indicate where the thing was to be found. It was soon learned that if anyone wanted some particular thing, there was no sense in hunting for it, for Keene could lay his hands on it in a minute.

OCTOR HACKENSAW, I've got something peculiar to show you!"

The speaker was Phessenden Keene, bronzed from sunburn, and just returned from a trip to Central Africa, where he had been sent on a confidential mission by the doctor.

Keene was now Doctor Hackensaw's right-hand man. His declaration that he would make himself indispensable was no vain boast. Before he had been in the doctor's service a week, it was evident that he was a man of extraordinary abilities and energy. Doctor Hackensaw, however, in order to make the test thorough, kept him at work a whole month, without any salary. At the end of that time, he made him a princely offer for