When Mike had had his knee shattered by a taxicab in New York four years ago, Leland had gone there to offer him a job as his assistant in the Investigations Divison of the Manitou Life Insurance Company. Leland had seen Mike on the football field and had judged him to be an audacious and inventive man. In the hospital he told Mike that it was his hope that Mike could eventually bring those qualities into business. What Leland had to offer in return was a job at less than eight thousand a year—not much, in relation to the other offers that Mike was receiving. It was not a matter of Mike’s fame, but the qualities that had led to it, and Leland expected him to give them in full amount. In a week Mike called long-distance to accept the offer and explain why. He knew from the newspapers of what Leland had done, and could not believe that there was deception in what he had said. The sporting-goods firms and tobacco companies wanted to put him on display. He wanted to think he was better than a man who needed a break.

Ten months later, when the department was pulled out from under everyone in an economy move, Leland asked Mike if he was willing to go into a partnership. Mike wanted to know if Leland thought he still owed him anything—not long before, he had promised a future. Leland could remember thinking of the hustle to get new jobs, and how they were all a part of it. “I’m putting up my life’s savings. My wife is lending me four grand she had to sweat bullets to save. What do you think I owe you out of that?”

Mike went in with him with the money he had collected from his accident.