Hanford, a young engineer on construction work, is ambitious to succeed in business and also to marry the daughter of his employer. A big contract comes up and he feels that if he can land it, his chances will be decidedly good with the ...See moreHanford, a young engineer on construction work, is ambitious to succeed in business and also to marry the daughter of his employer. A big contract comes up and he feels that if he can land it, his chances will be decidedly good with the father. The girl he has made sure of in advance. The big contract is the rebuilding of the Wiley plant. He calls upon the Wileys and they lead him to understand that there is a possibility of his getting the order. He goes to work and spends much of his valuable time in study and research and finally lays his plans before their force. When he has finished his exposition the Wileys thank him genially and bid him good-day. He is given to understand that he does not get the order, that they simply wanted to have their force see how a really good salesman went to work (and incidentally they have had valuable points given them in structural engineering). Naturally Hanford is pretty sore and makes up his mind to get even. The opportunity comes when he finds himself a rival of young Wiley for a big English contract in London. Wiley has letters of introduction and every pull; Hanford has nothing. But Wiley incautiously shows the girl, for whose hand he is also a rival, a cipher cablegram to his father and she passes it on to Hanford. Then Hanford sees a way to beat Wiley, Jr. and get square with Wiley, Sr. In the office of the English syndicate having the contract to give is a clerk who strongly resembles Sir Thomas Drummond, the Chief of the Syndicate. Hanford makes a friend of this man and sends him to America, where he meets Wiley, Sr., and impersonates the Englishman of affairs so successfully that Wiley, Sr. takes his tip and cables his son to add fifty thousand pounds to their bid for the English contract, thinking that he is thereby adding this amount as graft for the Englishman. Of course the result is that the contract is awarded to Hanford, and he returns to America on the same steamer with the disgruntled young Wiley. In the custom house, while waiting for their trunks to be examined, all the characters come together and Wiley, Sr. learns how he has lost the big contract and how Hanford has gotten square with him. Incidentally Hanford convinces his prospective father-in-law that he is not only a clever salesman, but a valuable addition to the family, and everything ends happily. Written by
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