"I've got to get at it some other way," said Jimmy, "but you bet your life I'm going to get at it. It looks to me as though there's something funny about that pay-roll." On his way out he stopped at Everett's cage. "What was the amount of the check for the pay-roll for this week, Everett?" he asked. "A little over ninety-six hundred dollars." "Thanks," said Jimmy, and returned to the shops to continue his study of his men, and as he studied them he asked many questions, made many notes in his little note-book, and always there were two questions that were the same: "What is your name? What wages do you get?" "I guess," said Jimmy, "that in a short time I will know as much about the payroll as the assistant general manager." Nor was it the pay-roll only that claimed Jimmy's attention. He found that several handlings of materials could be eliminated by the adoption of simple changes, and that a rearrangement of some of the machines removed the necessity for long hauls from one part of the shop to another. After an evening with the little volume he had purchased for twenty-five cents in the second-hand bookshop he ordered changes that enabled him to cut five men from the pay-roll and at the same time do the work more expeditiously and efficiently. "Little book," he said one evening, "I take my hat off to you. You are the best two-bits' worth I ever purchased." The day following the completion of the changes he had made in the shop he was in Compton's office. "Patton was explaining some of the changes you have made," remarked Compton. Patton was the shop foreman. "He said they were so simple that he wondered none of us had thought of them before. I quite agree with him." "So do I," returned Jimmy, "but, then, my whole method is based upon simplicity." And his mind traveled to the unpretentious little book on the table in his room on Indiana Avenue. "The feature that appeals to me most strongly is that you have been able to get the cooperation of the men," continued Compton "that's what I feared--that they wouldn't accept your suggestions. How did you do it?" "I showed them how they could turn out more work and make more money by my plan. This appealed to the piece-workers. I demonstrated to the others that the right way is the easiest way--I showed them how they could earn their wages with less effort." "Good," said Compton. "You are running into no difficulties then? Is there any way in which I can help you?" "I am getting the best kind of cooperation from the men in the shop, practically without exception," replied Jimmy, "although there is one fellow, a straw boss named Krovac, who does not seem to take as kindly to the changes I have made as the others, but he really doesn't amount to anything as an obstacle." Jimmy also thought of Bince and the pay-roll, but he was still afraid to broach the subject. Suddenly an inspiration came to him.