You certainly have!" Sheridan was baffled.

This was not what he wished to say, but his words were unmanageable; he found himself unable to control them, and his querulous abuse went on in spite of him.

"I can't say I expect much of you--not from the way you always been, up to now--unless you turn over a new leaf, and I don't see any encouragement to think you're goin' to do THAT! If you go down there and show a spark o' real GIT-up, I reckon the whole office'll fall in a faint.

But if you're ever goin' to show any, you better begin right at the beginning and begin to show it to-morrow." "Yes--I'll try." "You better, if it's in you!" Sheridan was sheerly nonplussed.

He had always been able to say whatever he wished to say, but his tongue seemed bewitched.