"Maybe there is," said Al, quietly. "I mean to have a big house to-morrow night somehow or other." The manager laughed sarcastically. "I've heard beginners like you talk before," he said. "You think you are going to set the river on fire, but the river is not inflammable. I admire your nerve. I've heard how you drummed up business in Boomville, and you did well. But you can't do that sort of thing all the time. My friend, Wattles, wrote and told me that you would work things so that the house would be full when his company played, but he made a mistake that time." "Did Mr. Wattles say that?" cried Al. "He did; and I was surprised at it, for Wattles is not usually a very sanguine man." "If he said it, I'll do it," announced the boy. Again his companion laughed. "There's nothing like youthful enthusiasm," he said, "and I acknowledge that it cuts lots of ice at times--but not every time. You might as well try to square the circle as to get a crowd here to-morrow evening. It can't be done." "We'll see," responded Al, with the most confident air he could assume. The task before him was a hard one, apparently an impossible one, but he resolved that he would try to accomplish it. "Sail ahead, and do it if you can," said the manager, with something very much like a sneer. "I shall watch your methods with interest." "It's a pity," said Al, "that you have only one morning paper here. Now if----" "Oh," interrupted his companion, yawning, "we'll have another to-morrow morning." "How is that?" "A young dude named Marcus, with more money than brains--and not very much of either, by the way--is to issue the first number of a new daily to-morrow morning. He is going to call it the _Bugle_, I believe." "It being the first issue," suggested Al, "it is likely to have a good sale. Wouldn't it be a good scheme to spend a little extra in advertising in it?" "My lad," said the manager, wearily, "your ideas are primitive in the extreme. I have given them my usual size ad., and even if I wanted any more space--which I don't--I couldn't get it, for the paper is about all made up now. Oh, we can't do anything against the circus, and that settles that matter." It did not settle the matter with Al, however. He returned to his hotel, and spent what was left of the afternoon in trying to devise some plan to arouse public interest in the performance of the New York Comedy Company. He worked at the problem until his head ached, but the harder he thought the farther he seemed to be from a solution. In the evening he went down to the restaurant connected with the hotel, quite discouraged. There was no one in the room when he entered; but a few minutes later two men, both of them evidently very much excited, came in and seated themselves near him. After a glance at the boy and a hurried order to the waiter, they resumed a conversation in which they had been engaged when they entered.