For a moment Sam stood looking at the money on the table and at the back of the man by the window, burning with indignation. He felt that he should like to take hold of the man’s throat and press as he had once pressed on the throat of Windy McPherson. And then a cold gleam coming into his eyes he cleared his throat and said, “You are short here; you will have to build this pile higher if you expect to interest me.” The man by the window shrugged his shoulders--he was a slender, young-looking man in a fancy waistcoat--and then turning and taking a roll of bills from his pocket he walked to the table, facing Sam. “I shall expect you to be reasonable,” he said, as he laid the bills on the table. When the pile had reached twenty thousand, Sam reached out his hand and taking it up put it in his pocket. “You will get a receipt for this when I get back to the office,” he said; “it is about what you owe our company for overcharges and crooked material. As for our business, I made a contract with another company this morning.” Having got the buying end of the Rainey Arms Company straightened out to his liking, Sam began spending much time in the shops and, through Colonel Tom, forced big changes everywhere. He discharged useless foremen, knocked out partitions between rooms, pushed everywhere for more and better work. Like the modern efficiency man, he went about with a watch in his hand, cutting out lost motion, rearranging, getting his own way. It was a time of great agitation. The offices and shops buzzed like bees disturbed and black looks followed him about. But Colonel Tom rose to the situation and went about at Sam’s heels, swaggering, giving orders, throwing back his shoulders like a man remade. All day long he was at it, discharging, directing, roaring against waste. When a strike broke out in one of the shops because of innovations Sam had forced upon the workmen there, he got upon a bench and delivered a speech--written by Sam--on a man’s place in the organisation and conducting of a great modern industry and his duty to perfect himself as a workman. Silently, the men picked up their tools and started again for their benches and when he saw them thus affected by his words Colonel Tom brought what threatened to be a squally affair to a hurrahing climax by the announcement of a five per cent increase in the wage scale--that was Colonel Tom’s own touch and the rousing reception of it brought a glow of pride to his cheeks.