I was glad to have that matter off my mind, and he promised to get busy on it before he went out to lunch. I changed my opinion a little about Mr. Field. He had struck me as being a man who always took things in an easy-going way, but the promptness with which he got after me when he spotted a new prospect for a policy, and the directness with which he explained the proposition, showed me that he had plenty of energy to use when necessary. At four o'clock I got another surprise. This time it was a long-distance call from Mr. Peck, the credit manager of Bates & Hotchkin. "Have you had a fire, Mr. Black?" was his first remark. "Yes," I replied, "quite an exciting time." "Are you covered by insurance?" "No--" "What!" he cried, and there was great anxiety in his tone. "No, the policy expired a few days ago and somehow I neglected to--" "Neglected to--neglected such an important thing as your insurance!" My! but I felt small! "What's the amount of damage?" "I should say fifty dollars would cover it, and that's on the building, not on the stock." "Phew! I was told that you had been burned out." He must have felt relieved. "You had better get busy and place insurance at once! And your credit is stopped until you have fully protected yourself!" I told him I had already arranged that with Mr. Field, and he said to have Mr. Field advise him as soon as the policy was written. Those two calls gave me an insight as to how real business was conducted. Neither of them certainly delayed much when they heard about it, and they must have had some means of finding out things promptly. But I shuddered to think of my narrow escape. If the place had burned down I'd have been absolutely ruined. I wondered if Stigler would--oh, but no, it wasn't possible the man would do such a thing. I saw him as he was coming home. "Had quite a fire, didn't yer?" was his remark. "Sorry for yer"--but his tone belied his words. I wondered! CHAPTER XXVII PROFIT-SHARING PLANS Our weekly meetings had certainly cultivated a better spirit among my small staff. Even in the case of Wilkes it had had quite an effect. He was only a boy, but we allowed him to sit in the meetings because I wanted to make him feel that he was part of the organization. Ever since we started them he had been much better in his delivery of parcels. He was more courteous and attentive; he felt he was one of the firm. He was not the slipshod, careless, happy-go-lucky boy he was once, but a careful boy, studying the interests of the business certainly more than we clerks had done when I was at Barlow's. I think that retailers could do a lot to build up self-reliance and self-respect among the boys they have. At our next Monday meeting the fire was discussed. Jones suggested that we have a big fire sale. At this Wilkes broke in eagerly: "But what would we have to sell? I thought at a fire sale you had to sell stuff that got damaged by the fire."