have happened lots of times before, hasn't it?"

"It's happened twice before, this fall," returned Mr. Wheatcroft,
fiercely, "after our bid had been practically accepted and just before
the signing of the final contract!"

"Let me explain, Wheatcroft," interrupted the elder Whittier, gently.
"You must not expect my son to understand the ins and outs of this
business as we do. Besides, he has only been in the office ten days."

"I don't expect him to understand," growled Wheatcroft. "How could he?
I don't understand it myself!"

"Close that door, Paul," said Mr. Whittier. "I don't want any of the
clerks to know what we are talking about. Here are the facts in the
case, and I think you will admit that they are certainly curious: Twice
this fall, and now a third time, we have been the lowest bidders for
important orders, and yet, just before our bid was formally accepted,
somebody has cut under us by a fraction of a cent and got the job.
First we thought we were going to get the building of the Barataria
Central's bridge over the Little Makintosh River, but in the end it was
the Tuxedo Steel Company that got the contract. Then there was the
order for the fifty thousand miles of wire for the Trans-continental
Telegraph; we made an extraordinarily low estimate on that. We wanted
the contract, and we threw off, not only our profit, but even
allowances for office expenses; and yet five minutes before the last
bid had to be in, the Tuxedo Company put in an offer only a hundred and
twenty-five dollars less than ours. Now comes the telegram to-day. The
Methuselah Life Insurance Company is going to put up a big building; we
were asked to estimate on the steel framework. We wanted that
work--times are hard and there is little doing, as you know, and we
must get work for our men if we can. We meant to have this contract if
we could. We offered to do it at what was really actual cost of
manufacture--without profit, first of all, and then without any charge
at all for office expenses, for interest on capital, for depreciation
of plant. The vice-president of the Methuselah, the one who attends to
all their real estate, is Mr. Carkendale. He told me yesterday that our
bid was very low, and that we were certain to get the contract. And now
he sends me this." Mr. Whittier picked up the telegram again.

"But if we were going to do it at actual cost of manufacture," said the
young man, "and somebody else underbids us, isn't somebody el