Elbert County tribune and Elbert County banner., 1920-10-22

bows and drew quick. nervous
breath. His eyes. now slightly dilated.
sought for billiards.. found them'
darted away again.
.Tbat's tough :. b. mighty tough
came ~ here thinking l might
do something about 1t. Save the SIT
uation, you know. Too late. is lit
"A good deal too late"
Harmon exhaIed lengthily. and fum-
bled for his invariable cigarette; Hill
lard observed. without particular de-
duct,op. that his hands lacked Ger
tainty.
..Tbat does sort of burst the bubble.
doesn't lit Well suppose
the next step you want to take Is TO
get out of town"
NO" said Hilliard. an stay till It's
over with"
Harmon gasped.
"Stay7 Stay here after the news
is out7 What for?"
81 hardly think you'd understand
what I'm staying for. Mr.. Harmon.
The fat broker shook his head IN
vigorous protest
NOW, lOOh LIS WIZ ''e.C
paternally kind. you've been tine
sport through this whole business. ex-
cept once. and we won't let that bother
us now. AS a salesman you've been
a holy wonder. You've done all ex-
pected you'd do. or could do, and then
some. And your fiare-up last time
was here don't hurt you with me one
little bit. But here we are at the fin
ish. My suggestion to you Is to pack
your duds and get out. Call 1t day
and quit. There's better business
somewhere else. And If you'd like to
plant yourself In some other good
town. say, Detroit. and"
mo. thanks" billiards smile was
out of genuine humor.
"wen, aren't you open to convic-
tionT
mo, don't think l am. Please
don't argue-that's final.
"Well, you're sure you can't do any
more here, aren't your"
'Not nickel's worth-even If
wanted to. And would you mind get
ting down to brass tacks2 Otherwise
1 can't see any benefit to either of us
from prolonging this interview; can
your"
Harmon inspected him carefully and
seemed to be struck with an inspira-
ton.
I'm not sure Of 1t, at that. Look
here nowl I've got an idea! Let's
try to get some benefit out OF It Sup
pose you got clear of this mess. Sup
pose we straighteB it out from top to
bottom. Everybody satisfied. Sup
pose you got out of 1t absolutely clean !;
do you think you could take your ex-
perience and your front and your en-
ergy and cash in on some better busi-
ness7"
Hilliard exclaimed aloud; he could
hardly credit his ears.
whats that7" he managed. 81
don't understand
The brokers' eyes frightened. Its
easy enough II you put your mind to 1t.
I've told you before" he said impress
sively, I'm out for results. That's my
middle name-R-E-sults. And not re-
suits from minute to minute, but re-
suits in the long run. Now 1t does
seem to me like an awful shame to
have you come I'D here and spend all
this time and money flub-dubbing
around. and then have 1t all over
with, and nothing to show for 1t but a
lot of bellyaching customers. OF
course we've made little money. but
when we let this scheme wind up I'm a
big howl from everybody we've got
into 1t we're losing the cumulative
value of you. And it's you that was
the backbone of the whole idea. Now
this is only passing thought, but let's
consider it-which way would be the
best for us in the long run. to close
up this deal and get out from under.
and take little profit and be in dutch
here forever, or to be couple of phil
anthropists and play strong for the
future?"
How do you mean2" billiard was
afire with hope.
The brokers smile was every mo-
ment more broadly ingratiating.
"Why. suppose I should hand you
back every cent you've collected and
paid in. This is just a suggestion-I
want your opinion on 1t. You go
round to your subscribers; tell EN-
the mine isn't as promising as you
thought 1t was; you're going to make
good; give 'em their money back.
Now-if you did that and left first
class impression everywhere. could you
start from scratch all over again and
sell enough honest-to-goodness conser-
vative stuff-municipals or like that
to those same people to make up the
differenceT He was studying his