Later a similar inscription appeared on the front of the building, and one by one brightly colored signs of wood or metal began to flaunt themselves, advertising the merit of Somebody’s Motor Oils or Somebody Else’s Tires. But that was a good deal later. Almost every day now Jimmy announced or exhibited the purchase of some necessary tool or implement, and the prices at which he obtained things――many of them second-hand but in good condition――amazed his partners. If Jimmy wanted a certain kind of wrench he knew just where to go and bargain for it and ultimately get it at his own price. Meanwhile the mail delivered all sorts of letters and circulars to the firm. It was remarkable how quickly news of the formation of the new concern reached the dealers in automobile supplies. And it seemed still more remarkable how eager those same dealers were to do business. In the evenings the three members of the firm sat in the little office――they had only to turn a switch now to flood the place with light――and discussed the brands of oils or greases or tires to be handled by them. “These Wells-Knight people offer a whole lot bigger discount than the Octagon folks,” Willard would say. “Couldn’t we make more if we handled their goods, Jimmy?” “We’ll take some of their stuff,” Jimmy would reply, “but the Octagon factory makes better tires, Will. It doesn’t pay to make too much profit on a thing because it’s a fair bet the thing isn’t really good, and we don’t want to sell a poor tire to a man and lose his trade when we can sell him a good tire and have him come back again. Same way with oils and greases and soaps. There are fifty firms putting those things on the market, I guess, and it would take Solomon to know which ones are the best, but at least we can steer away from those we know to be too cheap to be good. I guess, take it by and large, we’d better deal with the Red A folks on oils. They don’t offer as big a discount as a lot of others, but everyone knows their goods; they’ve been making them for six years or so, and that means something.” By the end of that week salesmen were popping in on them at all hours, salesmen with everything from a new kind of tire-pump to turn-tables and gasoline tanks. One man even wanted to take their order for a vacuum cleaner. He told them they would find it extremely handy for getting the dust out of automobile upholstery. They were offered the local agency for all sorts of things from spark-plugs to wind-shields. And the offers didn’t stop at wind-shields, either, for there came a letter one day that caused Jimmy to snap his fingers triumphantly and exclaim: “Jumping Jupiter, fellows, why didn’t I think of that myself?” The letter proved to be from a well-known firm of automobile manufacturers in the middle West and it offered them the Audelsville agency for their cars. When the boys learned of the commission to be made on the sale of one automobile they opened their eyes very wide.