The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-01-15


the terror, too, that set him on his
way once more, in fight again. He'd
have to do it some time, though. He
couldn't 60 back and face Edith until,
at\least, he'd tried. He would try at
the next garage he came to. After
all, they couldn't do anything to him.
They couldn't even, with rudeness and
ridicule, make him feel any worse
than he felt right now.
All the same, he went by two more
before he tried one. At last he opened
door and went inside. He took his
auto choke out Of his pocket and
started in on the first man he saw.
"Can interest you :" He didn't
know what he was saying, but it must
have sounded coherent since the man
listened calmly enough; but after
while he yawned and said, you'll
have to talk to the boss. i amt got
nothing to do with it, M
els the boss out?" Edward asked.
He thought for an instant he was go
ing to get reprieye, but the man
said, mo, here he comes now" So
he had to begin all over again.
The fog lifted momentarily while he
talked and he heard himself saying
things
A customer had come in and the
boss was getting uneasy. "Oh, it's all
right, guess" he said at last, shut
there are so many of those things.
No, don't believe I'm interested.
Nothing doing just now, anyway"
He was out on the street once more.
He had known it would come out like
that. What the boss had said was
| perfectly true; there were uncounted
things to make cars run better. or
more conveniently. being. offered
every day. =
Well, he'd tried, anyhow, and the
experience hadn't been so bad. BY
I comparison with the way he'd felt
when he went into that place, he was
almost elated. He might as well go
| on and try other places. He tried an
other and another and another. He
| lost count at last; didn't know how
many he had tried. The thing was SO
obviously useless, he was surprised to
find, in the main, so much good-hu-
mored tolerance. They let him talk.
They even seemed to listen, some
times for one minute, sometimes for
as many as five.
The steady repetition Of failure was
wearing him down. The mood of des-
peration that had driven him from
the office was once more engulfing him,
with fatigue, crude bodily fatigue, on
top of it. He couldn't go back to the.
office now. He was marked legibly
with failure, branded with 1t.
A queer Renaissance came over him
of the other office; the handsomely
furnished, comfortable Office in the in
surance company; of himself sitting in
the easy chair, debating to a smart,
neat stenographer. The queer, almost
unbelievable oddity about it was that
i he didn't wish himself back there. Not
even now. For the man who had sat
in that easy chair, comfortably sal
aried, secure, exercising an authority
that was unquestioned as far as it
went, seemed to him not to have been
man at ala symbol; a stuffed
shirt.
He turned into the Office of another
public garage and asked-it had be-
| come mechanical question-for the
boss. "He's busy now," his informant
said with a jerk of the thumb. you'll
have to wait minute"
Edward drew near and waited
It was another salesman who was
talking to the boss, trying to sell him
newfangled trouble light. Edward
listened absently at first. but after
minute or two he noticed something.
The salesman wasn't saying word
about the merits of his device. He
was talking discounts, quoting job
bers' prices. There was a clean profit
of two dollars and twenty-five cents in
every individual light the boss could
sell. That was more than a dollar
better than he could hope for under
ordinary conditions. He'd better let
him leave half dozen on consign-
ment while he was finding out what
the QeIndnu amounted TO. Inc sales
man would come back in a few days
and sell him real order.
Edward didn't try to make sale in
that place. He remembered, now, that
his statesmen had always grumbled
about discounts. He'd followed Mari
ner's lead in stiffly maintaining the
price. He'd learned something more
Why should any of these little dealers
care how much gasoline his device
would save? They sold gasoline
They'd sell anything there was hand
some profit in, unless it were so hope
less a fraud that it kept coming back
on their hands.
He tried the new approach and
found that half the time, perhaps, it
worked. He accumulated little list
of dealers to whom he was to send,
next day, half dozen of his chokes
on consignment
He was dog tired by now, but some
how he couldn't stop. Something-he
didn't know what it was-drove
him on.
n 1..1