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Jimmy had felt from the moment that he was introduced to Bince that the latter

was antagonistic and now that the two were alone together he was not long left in

doubt as to the correctness of his surmise. As soon as the door had closed behind

Mr. Compton Bince wheeled toward Jimmy.

"I don't mind telling you, Mr. Torrance," he said, "that I consider the services of

an expert absolutely unnecessary, but if Mr. Compton wishes to experiment I will

interfere in no way and I shall help you all I can, but I sincerely hope that you, on

your part, will refrain from interfering with my activities. As a matter of fact, you

won't have to leave this office to get all the information you need, and if you will

come to me I can make it easy for you to investigate the entire workings of the

plant and save you a great deal of unnecessary personal labor. I suppose that you

have had a great deal of experience along this line?"

Jimmy nodded affirmatively.

Just how do you purpose proceeding?"

Oh, well," said Jimmy, "each one of us really has a system of his own. At first I

won't seem to be accomplishing much, as I always lay the foundation of my

future work by studying my men. Some men have that within them which spurs

them on; while some need artificial initiative--outside encouragement." He hoped

that the door to Compton's office was securely closed.

"Some men extend themselves under stern discipline; some respond only to a

gentle rein. I study men--the men over me, under me, around me. I study them

and learn how to get from each the most that is in him. At the same time I shall

be looking for leaks and investigating time-keeping methods"--he was looking

straight at Bince and he could not help but note the slight narrowing of the

other's lids-- "wage-paying systems and planning on efficiency producers."

112

The Efficiency Expert