Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 141: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GOOD BUY. ly!” smiled Smithson. ‘“ They'll come down again; and then we'll buy.” “And if they don’t? We've orders to fill. It’s better to pay a little more, within reason, of course, if our volume of sales is great enough to make it pay.” Mr. Spear’s voice rose; it was the tone that inspired awe. ‘‘I want to see more codperation be- tween the purchasing and sales depart- ments. There’s no room for selfish or com- placent individualism in this organization. In fact, I’ve been thinking ” — he hadn’t really thought of it until this moment, but it sounded like the expression of a mature conviction—“ I’ve been thinking of mak- ing every salesman a buyer, and vice versa, so every man Jack of you will really un- derstand this business!” Smithson laughed, amiably enough, it is true, but his laughter annoyed Mr. Spear. He became more wrathy. He raised a long and impressive finger. ‘** Another thing I want to see!” he said, “T want to see more loyalty between em- ployees. I’m loyal to everybody that works for me; I'll stick by ’em through a lot. I expect them to be loyal to me, to the com- pany. But I know this: nobody can be square with the company that isn’t square with the boys in his department. I don’t want any tattle-tales or any back-biters currying my favor, for they won’t get it!” He rose and stormed out of the room, leaving the conference to discuss his sug- gestions and his unusual ill-humor. For the rest of the morning Mr. Spear struggled to instruct his healthy stenogra- pher in the art of spelling. At last, deter- mined to put the day’s problems out of his mind, he took up his bag of golf clubs. As he did so, the door of his office opened, and he turned, with a frown that meant “ I can bear no more,” to be reminded of the ex- istence of Robert Adams by that young man’s presence. Robert had not yet lost his shirt, despite Mr. Spear’s ill-natured prediction, but it did appear that he had lost his goat. “Well, young man?” Mr. Spear had not relinquished his hopeful hold on the golf clubs, “Well —I’m back,” Robert informed 131 him, unnecessarily. “Had a great vaca- tion, and all that.” His tone was as life- less as an undertaker’s. He was, indeed, a lugubrious lad. He had come directly to Mr. Spear’s office; he couldn’t bear, just now, to see Betty. | “Yes, I’m back,” he repeated. “ And I won’t be pestering you any more for a buyer’s job ”—it was a very small “b” now—* because I guess I’m not cut out for that sort of thing. And I’ve made an aw- ful mess of things, Mr. Spear; I’m about as resourceful as a baby.” ** Well, some babies I’ve known were un- commonly resourceful,” observed Spear, letting go of the golf clubs and sitting down. “What happened?” “T started out all right,” said Bob. “TI was doing well with the collections, better than I had expected. Here’s about three thousand dollars in checks that I gathered in; besides, there was nearly seven hundred in cash. There was, but there isn’t now. “T was going to send it from Crescent. On the way I was held up and robbed. I did not report it because I thought I could be resourceful enough to make it up somehow without letting you know how foolish I’d been. I figured I might be able to sell the Northern Stores Company a big enough order to make it up in commissions. Well, I didn’t. I guess I’m pretty rotten as a salesman, but I’m worse as a buyer!” Mr. Spear made no comment. -Bob drew a long breath, and went on. ‘Of course, I reported the robbery to the sheriff at Crescent, and he promised to investigate it. But he didn’t locate the thief, and I guess he won’t; the man took only cash, and he looked like a native. I don’t think they’ll find him; they never do. Well, Pll pay back what I lost—if you'll let me take the old job back. “Tf I hadn’t been such a complete idiot, I might have sold the Northern Stores peo- ple. But I am an idiot. I fell hard for a put-up job that some other salesmen framed for me. They wanted to get me out of the way, so I wouldn’t see the Northern Stores general manager. IL had all his department heads ready to buy, and was waiting for him. They — the hard-boiled salesmer!— VOOKS CONMUC com