To-day the _Sue Davis_ show rose to tense drama. The money Dick Davis brought home after selling his stamps was almost gone; without warning, tight-fisted Israel Tice offered $500 more for the widow’s property than he had offered before. Sue was weary of fighting a battle that seemed endless. Why not sell, she asked her son, and be done with heartache? Why not find peace? Dick wanted to hold the property, but he saw how the struggle was aging his mother and consented. She was to agree to the terms when Tice stopped in that evening. Dick, who did not want to be present at the meeting, went off into the mountains to search for wild grapes. He came upon a picnic party; departing, they left behind a newspaper published that morning at the State capital. The paper carried the story of a new super-highway and a map. The map showed the highway following the line of the unimproved county road that passed his mother’s home. Their dream of a tea-room would be realized. But Tice must have seen the story that morning; Tice knew what the mountain might not know until to-morrow. Dick had to get home before his mother signed the agreement to sell. Running down the mountainside, crashing through thickets, he reached the house as she lifted the pen. He stuck the newspaper under Israel Tice’s nose, and a thwarted skinflint departed. It was hokum. Joe knew it for hokum. But it was good hokum, and it had built up a terrific suspense. The kind of suspense a Curt Lake script could give a show. Or had it been Sonny Baker’s acting? Next day Joe walked Royal Street. Saturday was a poor day to make the rounds, but when you were desperate for a part every day counted. FKIP’s John Dennis sat in a deserted casting office staring at the ceiling. “Come in, Joe. You’re just the man I’ve been thinking about. If I call you in to audition a show that will go on at 4:15, will you be available?” Joe understood. Dennis wanted to know if he was out of the _Sue Davis_ program that went on at 4:30. “What show?” he asked. “Were reviving _Mr. America_. There’s a new part being written in that should fit you like a glove. We put the show on last March and had three sponsor nibbles before it went off in June. This time we think we’ll sell it.” Joe remembered _Mr. America_. A five-a-week sustaining. Front demanded that he tell Gillis he was uncertain, that he might decide not to return to the _Sue Davis_ cast. Dennis would probably know he was lying, but that was the way front was played. He cast front aside. “I don’t know, Mr. Dennis. Right this minute, I’m in the dark. I’ll let you know.” “I’ll have to know by Wednesday. Unless there’s a switch, we’ll start to audition Thursday and cut the platter Saturday.” “I’ll know definitely by Wednesday,” said Joe. He had vowed Vic would have to send for him. All that was changed. He’d have to go to Vic for a showdown.