That small coin, because it was all alone in his pocket, drove him into the door. Two thirds down the broad store there stood a black-eyed, wiry, busy-looking man, giving various directions to the clerks and other men. Jack thought, "He's the 'boss.' He looks as if he'd say no, right away." Although Jack's heart was beating fast, he walked boldly up to this man: "Mister," he said, "do you want to hire another boy?" "You are the hundred and eleventh boy who has asked that same question within a week. No," responded the black-eyed man, sharply but good naturedly. "Gifford," came at that moment from a very cheerful voice over Jack's left shoulder, "I've cleaned out that lot of potatoes. Sold two thousand barrels on my way down, at a dollar and a half a barrel." Jack remembered that some uncommonly heavy footsteps had followed him when he came in, and found that he had to look upward to see the face of the speaker, who was unusually tall. The man leaned forward, too, so that Jack's face was almost under his. Mr. Gifford's answer had disappointed Jack and irritated him. "You did well!" said Mr. Gifford. Before he had time to think Jack said: "A dollar and a half? Well, if you knew anything about potatoes, you wouldn't have let them go for a dollar and a half a barrel!" "What do you know about potatoes?" growled the tall man, leaning an inch lower, and frowning at Jack's interruption. "More than you or Mr. Gifford seems to," said Jack desperately. "The crop's going to be short. I know how it is up _our_ way." "Tell us what you know!" said the tall man sharply; and Mr. Gifford drew nearer with an expression of keen interest upon his face. "They're all poor," said Jack, and then he remembered and repeated, better than he could have done if he had made ready beforehand, all he had heard the two men say in the Hotel Dantzic reading-room, and all he had heard in Crofield and Mertonville. He had heard the two men call each other by name, and he ended with: "Didn't you sell your lot to Murphy & Scales? They're buying everywhere." "That's just what I did," said the tall man. "I wish I hadn't; I'll go right out and buy!" and away he went. "Buy some on my account," said Mr. Gifford, as the other man left the store. "See here, my boy, I don't want to hire anybody. But you seem to know about potatoes. Probably you're just from a farm. What else do you know? What can you do?" "A good many things," said Jack, and to his own astonishment he spoke out clearly and confidently. "Oh, you can?" laughed Mr. Gifford. "Well, I don't need you, but I need an engineer. I wish you knew enough to run a small steam-engine." "Why, I can run a steam-engine," said Jack. "That's nothing. May I see it?" Mr. Gifford pointed at some machinery behind the counter, near where he stood, and at the apparatus in the show-window.