"No," he replied, "for, if we did that along the line suggested, Stigler would tell people that we were telling our customers' business to each other, and you can imagine the general feeling then. Stigler would urge them to come to him, and tell them that he would keep their business private, and such things as that." I must have looked dejected, for Barlow laughed sympathetically, put his arm around my shoulder, and said: "Now I know you had your heart set on doing this, Dawson, but it's really only a little matter." "Little?" I said, remembering the hullabaloo at the convention when mail-order competition was mentioned, as well as the question of credits. "Yes," he replied, "for we can help each other in a quiet way without any definite plan. Now, if you've any credit customers about whom you are in doubt, come in and see me and I'll tell you what I can of them." "And you'll do the same, sir?" "I surely will," said he. And we shook hands and that was how it ended. To think that the possibility of a real fight against the mail-order houses, and the certainty of checking credit losses, should be knocked in the head by one man who, because he happened to be a crook himself, thought everybody else was! CHAPTER X CURBING CREDIT CUSTOMERS The next evening, Jock McTavish and I had a long pow-wow over a plan to check credits. It is always a good idea to talk over such matters with an accountant, and Jock was _some_ accountant, in spite of having come from "Doomfreeze" as he called it. In the morning I took a form over to the printers with instructions to have it printed on 4 × 6-in. cards. I had an old cabinet that just took that size--and besides Jock said it was better than the 3 × 5-in. size. He said, "Most card indices, run on a 3 × 5-in. card, are crowded. The card is really too small except for such simple uses as an address index. The result is that the small cards soon get so cluttered up with notes and additions as to be difficult to read. Better use the 4 × 6-in. size, and give yourself room to write all you want and still keep it in order." Jock glared at me when he said that, for he considered that I was careless in my bookkeeping just because I carried charges on scraps of paper till evening and then entered them all at once. We decided that, starting on the first of the next month, we would make every customer wanting credit give us the following information, and sign it. This is a copy of the form: CHARGE CUSTOMER NUMBER ............