The Montague girl had insisted upon being present at this interview, after forbidding Merton to put his name to any contract of which she did not approve.

"I told Jeff right out that I was protecting you," she said.

"He understands he's got to be reasonable." It appeared, as they set about Baird's desk in the Buckeye office, that she had been right.

Baird submitted rather gracefully, after but slight demur, to the terms which Miss Montague imposed in behalf of her protege.

Under her approving eye Merton Gill affixed his name to a contract by which Baird was to pay him a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars a week for three years.
It seemed an incredible sum.