ght?"

"I only trust you're man enough to keep your word," she says. "The
boss's office is the first one to the left."

"Thanks," says Alex. "Them eyes of yours is alone worth the trip!"

This guy Calder's door is open and he's sittin' at a big desk writin'
away on somethin' like everything depended on speed. He's a great, big
fat bird, with one of them trick Chaplin mustaches and he's smokin' a
cigar as big as he is. His head is playin' it's hairless day. All in
all, he looked like big business, and my knees is knockin' together
till I'm afraid he'll hear 'em and turn around. Alex gumshoes up to
the desk and without sayin' a word, he lays the neckband right down
beside Calder, who immediately swings around with a snort.

"What's all this--how did you get in here?" he bellers.

"We took the subway down from Ninety-sixth Street," says Alex. "That
thing you got in your hand is the neckband of a shirt."

"Well?" growls Calder, tappin' the desk with a lead pencil.

"It contains two collar buttons--one front and one back," says Alex.
"As you may have noticed, they are built right into the cloth and are
meant to come _attached to the shirt_. This does away forever with the
necessity of buying a collar button. It cannot be broken, lost or
mislaid. Any shirt manufacturer making shirts with this neckband
attached will naturally have the bulge on his rivals. I can turn out
the neckband for practically nothing. I hold the patent."

Calder sneers.

"Ha!" he says. "There's a million cranks come in my office every day.
I suppose you want to sell me this, eh?"

"No, sir!" says Alex, with a pleasant grin.

I liked to fell through the floor at that!

"_No_, sir?" repeats Calder, droppin' the pencil.

"No, sir!" answers Alex.

"Well, what the--what _do_ you want then?" roars Calder. "Come now,
speak up. I'll give you five minutes, that's all!"

"That's three minutes more than I got to spare!" chirps Alex, pullin'
over a chair. "I don't want you to _buy_ this neckband, Mister Calder.
What I want is this--I know that _you_ are the greatest authority on
shirts and everything connected with the business, in the United States
if not in the world! I think I have a big thing here, a thing that
will revolutionize one end of that business. I say I _think_ so,
because I don't know. Now--the concern I represent wants your opinion
of it. We're willing to pay to have you, the world's greatest
authority, go on rec