lesaler and
began to sweat. The pixie fluttered it under my nose. "Two more
carloads of Atummyc Bath Powder," she gloated.

"Two more _carloads_?"

"Certainly. All the orders are reading _carloads_," she said. "This
thing has busted wide open."

And it had. Everybody, like I said earlier, lost their head. The
bath-powder plant was running three shifts and had back-orders chin
high. The general manager, a joker name of Jennings, got excited,
cabled Madame Elaine to get back here pronto, which she did, and then
the panic was on.

The miracle ingredient was this Atummion, and if Atummion sold bath
powder why wouldn't it sell face-cream, rouge, mud-packs, shampoos,
finger-nail polish and eye-shadow?

For that matter, the Old Hag wanted to know, why wouldn't it sell
Kissmet Lipstick?

The answer was, of course, that the magic legend "Contains the
Exclusive New Beauty Aid, Atummion" _did_ sell these other products.
Everything began going out in carload lots as soon as we had the new
labels printed, and to be truthful, I breathed a wondrous sigh of
relief, because up to that moment my Kissmet campaign had promised to
fall flat on its lying, crimson face.

* * * * *

The staggering truth about Atummion seeped in slowly. Item one:
Although we put only a pinch of it in a whole barrel of talcum powder,
_it did give the female users a terrific_ complexion! Pimples,
black-heads, warts, freckles and even minor scars disappeared after a
few weeks, and from the very first application users mailed us
testimonials swearing to that "atomic feeling of loveliness".

Item two: About one grain of Atummion to the pound of lipstick brought
out the natural color of a woman's lips and maintained it there _even
after the lipstick was removed_.

Item three: There never was such a shampoo. For once the ad
copywriters failed to exceed the merits of their product.
Atummion-tinted hair took on a sparkling look, a soft texture and a
_natural-appearing wave_ that set beauty-operators screaming for
protection.

These beauticians timed their complaint nicely. It got results on the
morning that the whole thing began to fall to pieces.

About ten A. M. Jennings called a meeting of all people concerned in
the Atummyc Powder project, and they included me as well as the pixie
and her brother, the assistant chemist.

Everyone was too flushed with success to take Jennings' opening remark
too seriously. "It looks l