Show 11 the rl ila rw IT S A novel newel ton by henry mtchell webster copyright by the bobba merrill 6 co service SYNOPSIS acting in good faith to aid a neigh tor or ruth ingraham in a business way ad edward ard patterson cashier ot of the chicago cago agency of a life insurance company Is in wrongly suspected by nil his wife julia of infidelity her accusation unfits him for business buil ness and he takes take s a short vacation ion on his return tr he la in cheply wounded by his bis daugh tr tar edith telling him hla his personal belongings are in the spare room having been removed from the room which had been hla his and hla his cifes bedroom patterson Pat torson accepts the situation at as proof of his cifes belief in his guilt edith seventeen years old Is worried over the estrangement of her parents her or mother only partly succeeds ds in her efforts to comfort her the so son edward junior Is at t college A busl business stedward as matter brings aa an inventor james mariner into pattersons Patter sons life mariner needs with which to push plush his invention an auto automobile mobil choke and patterson after a brief investigation vesti gation decides to go in with him supplying the money and taking a part r t in th the management without inform informing n hla 3 f family mily he resigns from the insurance company devoting h his s w whole hole time to the pushing of the invention an old friend albert willard Wll lard Is frankly skeptical of th the value of the choke atterson atts tells hi his wife of the change change adith h has made she accepts the situation balth Is in made aware of the change in the family fortunes by her mother telling her she has decided to part with the cook she and edith to do the be house housework at christmas editha school a private one puts on a play V tn which the girl has a part her brother ro ther edward c comes 0 mes from c college 0 elege for or the holidays with him Is hoger morgan whom edith had known as a child ii her a r mother asks edith to leave her bar present school band and finish her studies at the public high school it will mean a saving of several hundred dollars and edith agrees A talk with roger morgan h heartens her edward tells her he la Is going to pay his own way through the university and she decides to leave school and fit herself to become her fathers stenographer R lie Is hurt b but u t her determination Is evident vl dent edith fani finishes s hes her course and takes the pos position in her fathers ot of ica cc at her urging he goes out as a salesman lesman a to sell the choke CHAPTER V continued 10 nothing doing at all he said bald violently ive been listening to you fellows all day and im through see 1 I feel I 1 suppose much as you do edward told him its as tiring work trying to find the doors to inaccessible minds as it Is to sit listening to strings of plausible nonsense yet its part of your business to he be curious and tolerant and its part of mine to be indefatigable I 1 may have haie something you want and you sou may be a potential customer of mine it wont take either of u us but a few minutes to find out afra H ne wa was c conscious tons of having created with this speech some sort of disturb disturbance in the mental atmosphere of tile the man behind the counter in particular the word indefatigable seemed to have startled him hed been frightfully self belf conscious and embarrassed over his big choice of words during the earlier encounters of the day trying for tile the vocabulary the phrases even the inflections of hard boiled salesmanship kind and aware that he doing it successfully cess fully of late hed been forgetting about this supposed necessity but it until now that lie he realized how fa far r he had bad lapsed indefatigable the only one either how about inaccessible ces sible and potential and plausible nonsense ensell surprisingly though they teemed seemed not to have done ills his cause any barm possibly this hall of poly syllables Byll ables had dazed his victim the implacable hostility of his expression change and he spoke as gruffly as ever but what he said was ahat you got edward took tile the choke out of its his pocket and handed it over 01 er to him but at once launch out on his explanation gave gae him time for a curious and rather mystified examination first this conscious drama on his part lie ile was still thinking about tile the effect of his words was it possible that an honestly acquired command of the english language was an asset and not a liability certainly hed got on better since hed quit pretending to be less educated than he be really was the man was asking questions he kept on asking them lie he must like the thing or he hang on to it like that ile he sneered at edwards lighted match test but he repeated the thing two or three times for himself why suddenly edward got a surmise as to the answer to that question and it excited him as the sight of the fleeing cat excites the dog tile the man was afraid I 1 ile he was afraid hed buy A stupid man no doubt not very quick witted anyhow an how inclined to be credulous it if lie he look out people took him in persuaded him of things especially people whose intelligence telli gence he recognized as superior to his own his 1119 defense was to frighten them with his sneers his bullying voice when he succeeded in frightening them he avenged on them his own fears this time though his defense had failed the shoe was on the other foot tha customer before edward lot got through with him was going to sign ills his name on the dotted line of an order form A dozen no A full carton of two dozen was the tune be was going to dance to all the same when the order was finally filled in and the sta written down a feeling akin to panic took possession of the salesman the wan nan night might snatch tho the thing back from him and tear it up ile feel safe i until he fie had got outside lord what an exper experience lencel well he knew now how the thing was done lie ile looked at his watch and found it was alx ol clock hed have to call it it a day ne he could face edith now at all events he telephoned the office and mariner who happened to be there told him she had gone home bogie mariner seemed to want him to come back that evening there was quite a bit of mall mail he said and then there was a matter he wanted to talk about but edward told him it would have to wait lie ile want to talk to clariner mariner tonight ile he want to ta talk alk to anybody ile he telephoned the house and told julia he be be home to dinner perhaps not till late he know he mean to do anything but have a quiet dinner by himself somewhere at the club perhaps and think get himself together explore his discovery ile he had an idea that he might perhaps have lifted the skyline sky line of a new world E edward dward thought he knew what it was that mariner wanted to talk about the inventor was inventing something else hed begun throwing oil off mysterious hints about it weeks ago at first it was something lie yet ready to divulge even in the broadest way the nature of except that if it turned out right it would be prodigious the most revolutionary advance in automobile engineering that had come along as yet edwards emotional response to this sort of thing had been an almost un controllable impatience with the man there had been a time when mariner had bad talked that way about the auto choke he was edward reflected ex actie like a cat with her kittens turn ins ing fiercely on the last lot as soon as the new litter made its appearance so finding mariner in the office visibly waiting for him when he arrived with edith on the morning after his selling adventure he was prepared to do battle against an open proposal that they undertake tile the manufacture of mariners marinero Ma new device he was going to smash it flat yesterdays experience per peri lence ence had made a new man of him all right edward ednard said sitting down and motioning mariner to draw up a chair lets have am e it out on your mind mariner cid him ive been thinking about this choke business he said 1 I dont think weve wee got the right policy whatever the thing amounts to its a question of selling it and what we arent doing r suddenly edward got a surmise as to the answer to that question and it excited him as the sight of the fleeing cat excites the dog the man was afraid except for a few agencies in the south its practically a local business our real markets in the west and that part of the country been touched st louis and kansas city and from there on all the way to california edward pricked up his ears ile he began to see what was coming lie he switched his mind oft off what mariner was saying and began to think by the time the inventor wound up how it looks to me lie he had pretty well decided upon his line not a bad idea he said it if you can see any way to accomplish it of course our main preoccupation just now la Is to keep afloat we afford to send missionaries out to convert the west even it we ne had bad the man to go of course it would be essential mariner said to send the right man I 1 agree with you about that id even thought it would be well if I 1 went myself take my own car and drive all the way go to st louis first and get the work started there then across to kansas city an enormous field when I 1 got that organized id go on west to the coast the biggest field of all how long edward asked thoughtfully do you figure the trip will take oh not so very long mariner told him six weeks perhaps edward repressed an impulse to smile had the man any idea how transparent he ha was you do the job very thoroughly in that length of time he be commented mildly oh of course mariner admitted 1 I expect to stay in every town and watt wait till the results came in id give elve them a chance to take it if they wanted it though edward glanced around edith had slipped out into th eshop mariner he be said for just five minutes lets talk plainly it if youre advocating this trip to the coast its as a selling program youre balki talking ng nonsense theres more buying pow power er up sheridan road from here to milwaukee than there Is along your whole route between kansas and california we begun to cover cook county by the time we have covered it well know definitely whether weve got anything or not weve both been shirking youve done nothing for weeks nor I 1 either so far as the vital need of this business to Is concerned until yesterday yesterday I 1 was out in the street myself I 1 sell much but it was the most instructive day ive ever lived through I 1 knew now that our thing can be sold and I 1 know I 1 can sell it more I 1 can make uie oie salesmen sell it my proposal Is that we give up our grand ideas for the present and go to work I 1 mean to rm putting it up to you well I 1 wont have it I 1 M mariner ariner growled 1 I cant stand this place nor this peanut bust business ness I 1 ive had about fill all I 1 can stand of you patterson if its plain speaking you want ive ie got on to a big thing ive put my hearts blood into it ive ie been working over it twenty hours a day and when I 1 try to tell you about it you wont even een listen and ana then you yon tell me ive been shirking propose to make a peddler 0 out ut of me the way people are here in this part of the country out where my wife Is visiting they are different ashes met some people out there with money who dont think in terms of nickels by the time ive driven arh en my car with my new vaporizer on it out there across the plains and the mountains and the desert in winter ill be able to show them that iha t ive got a big thing to say to the man it was h 1 persuaded me to p put ut my savi j u 11 ll t tills this peanut business and if y you v a turn tu tall now inow and run like a yellow dog as you iou propose youre a self confessed fraud to day bay that and a lot more was on edwards tongue while mariner talked but when he ceased talking the impulse to retort died away As he sat there with hanging head his face working end and ills hands clenched he was merely pitiable suddenly lie he looked up 1 I beg your pardon patterson I 1 dont mean what wha t ive been saying between this new invention indention of mine and my and my wife im beside myself patterson I 1 dont know what ashes doing out there I 1 dont know what she may do im not a proper husband for her im not what she deserves but ive got to hang on ive got to go out there 0 d dl I 1 I 1 ought to be there now I 1 edwards gaze fixed itself out the window you look at a man while he was saying things like that there was another silence 1 I dont mean that either mariner went on again 1 I I 1 cant seem to talk at nil all this morning without running wild of course theres nothing serio serious us I 1 don dont t want you ou to think that for a minute anute but about this choke I 1 think theres a real chance to open u up p r some ome new territory ill do the very best by it that I 1 can at the very least I 1 can make it pay my way now how much I 1 edward dward asked aim thoughtfully how bow much money would you lou need to start with oil 01 not very much 1 I dont mean that edward told him 1 I mean for tile the whole trip mariner smiled wryly wr ly to be rid ald of me he commented tor for good and all ive ie got to know edward said yes of course mariner acquiesced youre right from your point of view five hundred dollars ill earn that in commissions between here and kansas kangas city but be enough I 1 guess well K R you earn more than that ill be glad to pay it af after ter the orders come in and the bills are paid I 1 wont honor any drafts though he added bluntly on prospects or promises mariner nodded understood lie he said but about that check can I 1 have it now it if I 1 can ill start tomorrow 1 I can let you have it edward said just about lie ile wrote it on the spot and mariner put it in his pocket ills manner had changed change ills face seemed actually to have filled out a little youre a good sport patterson he said anil I 1 believe youre going to make a go of this I 1 dont believe regret having gone into it im off now this Is going to be a lively day vor for a while after the door had closed behind him edward sat thoughtfully at his desk that check had pretty well cleaned him out yet ills his feeling was that mariners marinero Ma departure for good had bad been cheap at the price suppose hed foreseen this ending on that night when he be and mariner had dined together for the first time nt at the i club and hed listened to those golden prophecies and dreamed those roseate dreams lord I 1 but the queer beer thing was that he was glad he foreseen it glad he consulted bert about it as he had bad halt half meant to do that night the very blindness of his infatuation struck him as it a piece of luck ufa his daughters voice startled him gosh I 1 hope he stays in california I 1 she said dad what do you suppose babas been up to out there that hes hems so BO excited about 1 but she seem to expect him to answer that what gets me she went on almost nt at once ls why he should care what she does as long as she come back she treats him like a worm when ashes here he cant possibly like her nobody could like a person like that what does doe s he want of her she came over to him pulled him around in his swivel chair chair sat down in his lap and hugged him halml 1 I think youre perfectly great dad she said then she laughed 1 I bet youre glad mother like that come on lets get to work were just at the beginning he be told her making our real start today the way I 1 feel about it its a long road my dear but it leads somewhere CHAPTER VI the sacrifice that one thing the length of the road was what edith dared not let herself think about She mind any of the incidents of the job taken by themselves as they came along it gasn wasn t hard not so hard after the first week as school the eighteen dollars her father handed her in a regular pay envelope |