u, hey?"

Munson has listened to every word, first with a heavy frown and then
with a kind of thoughtful look on his face. He taps the desk with a
lead pencil, reads the card a couple of times and then slams his fist
on the desk.

"By Peter, young man!" he snaps out suddenly, "you may be right! The
wording of that office blank _is_ rather insulting, now that I dissect
it--been too busy before to notice it. Yes, sir, I _would_ resent
having my business blatted out before a whole staff of subordinates!
There must be some way, of course, to keep out the hordes of jobless
and what not who would get in if it wasn't for that blank and now, by
the eternal, we'll find one less liable to turn away gold with
the--er--grist! I thank you for the suggestion. And now, what did you
want to see me about?"

"Automobiles," says Alex, "and--"

Munson freezes right up and slaps his hands together.

"That's enough!" he snarls. "Perhaps that office blank of ours is not
so bad after all! If you had filled it out properly, you wouldn't be
here. I've heard enough about autos to-day to last me for the rest of
my life. Yesterday, I mentioned casually, and I thought in confidence,
that we were considering a change in our delivery system. Beginning at
eight this morning, there has been a constant stream of automobile
salesmen in this office! The only persons who have not tried to sell
me automobiles are George Washington, Jack Dempsey and Billy Sunday!
I'm quite sure every one else has been here. The air has been filled
with magnetos, self-starters, sliding gear transmissions, aluminum
crank cases and all that other damnable technical stuff that goes with
automobiles! You need not open your mouth--I know exactly what your
sales talk is, they're all alike, more or less. Your car is far and
away the best on the market, of course, and--"

"Excuse me, Mister Munson!" butts in Alex. "You get me all wrong. Our
car--the Gaflooey--is _not_ the best on the market. There are others
just as good and some of the higher priced ones are, naturally, better.
You can't expect the best on the market for the price we sell at--750.
A man of your intelligence knows that and when a salesman tells you his
five hundred dollar car is better than a standard make at five
thousand, he's insulting your intelligence. We make a good, honest
car--that's all. I ain't gonna take up your time tellin' you about
the--eh--ah--the--eh, magneto and so forth. Un