ed him he experienced no patriotic thrill. After all,
there was no great difference, on the surface, between San Francisco and
Vancouver, save that Vancouver accepted as a matter of course the
principle that when the mother country was at war Canada was also a
belligerent and committed to support. Barring the recruiting offices
draped in the Allied colors, squads of men drilling on certain public
squares, successive tag days for the Red Cross, the Patriotic fund and
such organizations, the war did not flaunt itself in men's faces. The
first hot wave of feeling had passed. The thing had become a grim
business to be gone about in grim determination. And side by side with
those unostensible preparations that kept a stream of armed men passing
quietly overseas, the normal business of a city waxed and throve in the
old accustomed way. Thompson's most vivid impression was of accelerating
business activity, and that was his chief concern. The other thing,
which convulsed a far-off continent, was too distant to be a
reality--like an earthquake in Japan, a reported famine in India.

He went about his business circumspectly, without loss of time. He
leased a good location, wired the factory to ship at once, began a
modest advertising campaign in the local papers, and as a business coup
collared--at a fat salary and liberal commission--the best salesman on
the staff of the concern doing the biggest motor-car business in town.
Thompson had learned certain business lessons well. He had perceived
long since that it was a cutthroat game when competition grew keen. And
this matter of the salesman was his first blood in that line. The man
brought with him a list of prospects as long as his arm, and a wide
acquaintance in the town, both assets of exceeding value. Altogether
Thompson got off to a flying start. The arrangement whereby Henderson
consigned cars to him enabled him to concentrate all his small capital
on a sales campaign. He paid freight and duty. His cars he paid for when
they were sold--and the discount was his profit.

When his salesroom was formally opened to the public, with five Summits
on the floor and twice as many en route, when his undertaking and his
car models had received the unqualified approval of a surprising number
of callers, Thompson left the place to his salesman and went to see
Sophie Carr.

That was a visit born of sudden impulse, a desire to talk about
something besides automobiles and making money. Bu