The Dolores star., 1920-10-29

iCuhCo Aoi oh thS Oh-
bows. and drew q quick. nervous
breath. His eyes. now slightly diIated,
sought for billiards., found them,
darted away again.
THAT'S tough mighty tough =.
L.. came uD here thinking might
do something about 1t. Save the sit
uation. you know. Too late. is it7'
"A good deal too late"
Harmon exhaled lengthily. and FUN
bled for his invariable cigarette; Hill
lard observed, without particular de-
duction. that his hands lacked Ger
tainty.
THAT does sort Of burst the bubble.
doesn't it7 Well suppose
the next step you want to take is to
get out of town."
"No." said Hllliard. '.1n stay till it's
over with"
Harmon gasped.
"Stay? Stay here after the news
is out7 What for?"
II hardly think you'd understand
what I'm staying for. Mr.. Harmon"
The fat broker shook his head in
vigorous protest.
"Now, look herel" His voice was
paternally kind. you've been a fine
sport through this whole business, ex-
cept once. and we won't let that bother
us now. As . salesman you've been
holy wonder. You've done all e1-
pected you'd do, or could do, and then
some. And your fiare-up last time I
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 IL you'd like to
plant yourself in some other good
town. say, Detroit, and"
mo. thanks" billiards smile was
out of genuine humor.
"Well. aren't you open to convic-
tion?"
mo. don't think I am. Please
don't argue-that's final.
"Well, you're sure you can't do any
more here, aren't your"
mot a nickel's worth-even If I
wanted to. And would you mind get
ting down to brass tacks7 Otherwise
can't see any benefit to either of US
from prolonging this interview; can
you"
Harmon inspected him carefully and
seemed to be struck with an inspira-
tion.
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 1t. Sup
pose you got clear of this mess. Sup
pose we straighten 1t out from top to
bottom. Everybody satisfied. Sup
pose you got out of it 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-
ness?"
Hilliard exclaimed aloud; he could
hardly credit his ears.
whats that?" he managed. 81
don't understand"
The brokers' eyes frightened. "It's
easy enough If you put your mind to 1t.
I've told you BEFORE" he said impress
sively, "Im 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 fub-dubbing
around. and then have 1t all over
with, and nothing to show for 1t but
lot of bellyaching customers. OF
course we've made a little money, but
when we let this scheme wind up in 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 a couple of phil
anthropists and play strong for the
future?"
"How do you mean" Hilllard 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 suggestion-I
want your opinion on 1t. You go
round to your subscribers; tell 'em
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-go goodness conser-
vative stuff-municipals, or like that
to those same people to make up the
difference" He was studying his
companion keenly.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)