George's New Job

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 73, 27 March 1940, Page 17

George's New Job

Short Story By Gilbert Ashbarry

IT happened to me—as most things happen to me —through George. He. is one of those fellows who spend, half their time with their heads stuck in the bonnet of their '•bus" and most of the other half talking about it. In other words, he is what is known as "of a mechanical turn of mind." In the first years of our acquaintance he had travelled east and west for a firm of lubricating oil manufacturers— importers, refiners, distillers, or whatever Lhey call themselves, so that lie was always out of town from Monday to Friday. I was on the point of going to bed on Tuesday night when the unmistakable din of his sports oar reached my ears. A moment later he burst into the room. "What's the meaning of this?" I demanded. '"I thought you were usually busy keeping King's Lynn and Norwich lubricated at this time, of the week." '"No. that's all over,"' he grinned, ''it's like this— l-klnc—you know who 1 mean —Edna and I have decided to go in for marriage. To make that possible 1 have set about getting a better job. I've always known T could get something better if I tried. "I put in for a job with a firm of North Country engineers—a £7UI)-u-year job it was. The address was care of an agency, but you could tell by the., wording of the advertisement that fur a job like that thc.rc'd be a hundred applications. Still, I thought it worth a shot.

"The next morning one of my firm's competitors in the oil trade offered me a ligtire a hundred pounds a year more than my present screw if I would take over Cheshire and North Wales for them. Of course, I accepted. I started yesterday. In fact, you will probably be surprised to hear that at four p.m. today I was in Chester.

"Yes, when I got back to my hotel this afternoon —haven't had time to lind a home and install a wife, up there yet— I found a letter which had been sent on from my old digs in town. It wan a reply to my application for the £7<M) a year job, but it was still the agent who wrote, and not the firm.

"nicy said the managing director of the firm advertising the. post was comins up to town to interview likely applicants and had instructed them to lix an appointment with me at their office at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

"Well, how could I take a day <>tl to come up to town the very week. IV started with a new lirm?

"Besides, I'd liad orders to see a lirm in Cranford —which is half an hour's run from Chester—to-morrow, and the position seemed pretty hopeless till 1 thought of you." "And how did thinking of me help you?" I inquired. "'Why, you're the solution to the problem, don't you see? Five minutes after I'd thought of you I'd consulted the. A.B.C. and was round at the garage lilling up with petrol, which 1 lost no time in vapourising between Chester and your fla-t." "So it seems," I said, "but I don't quite follow why y6u stopped to consult the A.B.C. or how I can help you." "I consulted the A.8.1'.,'' said (Jcvorae, taking out his watch, "to see whether I had time to get to town and get you aboard the night mail to Cranford." "Me? Night mail! Cranford! Look here, George," I said, "if this is another of your crack-brain schemes you can "

"Xow, don't get excited," George eul in, "until you've heard what a toppini little proposition I've got to put to vol —besides, time is getting short.

"The idea ie this: I've never been to Cranford in my life; there are. nine firms I'm supposed to see there tomorrow, but only one call is important, that's the Cranford Electrical Power Company, who are very valuable customers.

bole marked 'Inquiries,* and being told, 'Xot to-day, thank you,' like a street hawker."

"Xow, if you "will just slip a, fewthings into a bag and let inc. run you down to Paddington you'll arrive in Cranford in time to have a nice early breakfast, pay my nine calls for me, and catch the three-fifty back to London; and the beauty of it is as I've never been to Cranford before in my life, no one will know you aren't me.

"If I should get this other job no one will be any the wiser and if 1 don't —well, if you pay those nine call* tactfully and avoid anything worse than a momentary interview with the oflice boy whenever possible, I can write my report of my day's work in Cranford from the details you give me on the platform at Paddington in the evening, and I'll give them time to forget what you're like before I go to Cranford again. "We shall have half an hour together before I catch my train to Chester, which will get me in just in time to catch the midnight post. Next morning my firm will receive my report as usual in my handwriting and complete with Chester postmark. "What do you think of that for a brainy scheme? Not the sort of thing I like doing, but when you think what it may mean to us—to Edna, whether I am able to make her a dress allowance or not —well, I think it's excusable." "I think you're asking for trouble/' he said, "but aren't you returning to Chester by road?"

"It all sounds very simple," I said, "but don't blame me if I lose your job for vou."

"You need have no fear of doing that," was George's final assurance as the train moved out. "providing you call on the Cranford Klectrical Power Company at midday when the chief engineer will be out at lunch. They've had trouble with our oil on one of their pumps —the works sent them the wrong grade or something—that's why the firm wanted me to look in there and see all was O.K. again—which no doubt it is—see them at lunch time and you'll be all right."

"Xo, couldn't do it in time to catch the post," said George, and a look of relief came through his face causing me to realise that my inquiry about the return journey had been taken as an intimation that I consented.

"And sure enough, half an hour afterwards, I found myself whizzing towards Paddington, attache case on knees, in George's two-seater. "Xow, remember my instructions and vou'll be all right," George assured me as he poked a couple of pillows he'd obtained from the cloakroom through the carriage window. "You'll have plenty of time to study that trade price list I've wiven you in the train, in case anyone should ask awkward questions, but only four of the firms are buying from us — they know our various oils and our prices, so if you just let them do tire talking they'll never suspect that you don't.

"Take Richards Bros., for instance — you'll see from the particulars I've given you they have been having transformer oil from us every few months, you just say 'Good morning, Mr. Richards, I've just dropped in to see if you're ready for some more transformer oil.' And if he holds forth about its specific gravity or its viscosity for half an hour it won't do you any harm providing you make non-committal answers.

This last revelation was half shouted to me as the train gathered speed. Obviously tieorge had kept it back till the last moment in case 1 might jib.

There was no need to ask the result of the interview with the large company director, for it was a dejected George who greeted nie on Paddington station the following evening, in spite of the vivacious spirits of his companion—for Kdna was by his side. "No good?" I questioned, sympathetically.

"Oh, yes,'' Kdmi replied lx>fore George had time to give liis explanation. "We've had a toppmg day together and I, at any rate, am very grateful to yon. (Jeorge hasn't got the job, hut neither has anyone else, and I'm quite willing to marry him. and will undertake to lionsekeep on his present screw and spare him a little pocket money." I turned to George. "It's most aggravating," he said, "when T turned up to keep the appointment this morning at the advertising agency, I was told that 'their client' had wired that he would be unable to come lip to town till Thursday, and would they please rearrange tlie appointment for 24 hours later?

"Of course, they had written me to this effect to my old town digs again, so 1 had not received the letter. Xice mess, isn't it—l can't possibly stay until to-morrow so some other blighter will get a .€7OO a year job which I don't mind telling you now I'd set my heart on getting.

"The fools said th«\v were 'not in a position to disclose the name of their clients.' or I might have written them. Ever heard of anything so mad? You'd better tell me how you got on—the Chester train goes in twenty minutes." I had never seen George looking so glum, but he even turned a trifle paler at my first revelation of my experiences.

"I got on all right,'* I said, "until I called on the Cranford Electrical Power at lunch time. Here I was questioned in such a way about the pump that I was forced to confess my ignorance, to confess that I was deputising for you. The result is, I am afraid, that you will lose your present job.

"It appears," I continued, while George and even Edna now, regarded me with alarm, "that the Cranford Electrical Power Company engineer has died suddenly, and the man at present in charge having some trouble with the mysterious pumps blamed it on to your oil. I was, therefore, interviewed by the managing-director, who seemed properly worked up about the affair.

"After telling me that if they had liecn five minutes later in making the discovery, the bearings were so hot they would have 'gone' and Cranford would have been in darkness—the idea of which, combined with Scots accent made me want to laugh—he took me into a sort of. laboratory, showed me a bottle of the defaulting oil, and asked me what its viscosity was at 70 degrees, and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, or something of the sort.

"What else was I to do but make a clean confession? Xow get ready for the worst, George. To my surprise, when I finished my explanation, instead of kicking me out. he looked rather amused, and said, 'Well, I think you've saved me a journey up to town. This chap, George Harrington, must be an enterprising sort of young fellow. Tell him to come in to see me in the morning, and from what you've told me, 1 don't think there's much doubt I shall be able to offer him the job of chief engineer.'"

George's face had l>een gradually lightening. At this point, having fully realised what had happened, he suddenly gripped me by the arm. and with Kdna on the other, marched us off down the now deserted platform. "Come on," he said, "let's celebrate the event by cracking a railway sandwich. I'm not going back until the night mail." (The End.) «&,

"As for the other five firms, I don't suppose you'll get further than handing one of my cards through a port-