For weeks afterwards sheets of ‘Hermits’ strewed the ‘cleared line,’ and he received a merciless chaffing from his fellow-fiends, who could have warned him what to expect had he confided his destination to them. About this time came to Atlanta a small, ’cute-looking, clean-shaven, elderly man. He was unknown to any present, but modestly admitted that he was in the book trade, and had a consignment with him. And he listened with interest to the conversation in the ‘Commercial Room.’ ‘The district’s petered out,’ remarked a tall American gentleman, with the goatee and nasal voice abhorred of Barracaboo. ‘Clean petered out since that last “Universal Biography” business. They’re kickin’ everywhere. Darned if a feller didn’t draw a bead on me yesterday afore I’d time almost to explain business. Then he got so mad that I left, not wantin’ to become a lead mine.’ ‘Been here a week and haven’t cleared exes.,’ said another mournfully. ‘Off to-morrow. No use trying to work such a desert as this now.’ ‘Big place, this station with the funny name, you’re talkin’ about?’ asked the newcomer, who had introduced himself as ‘Mr Potts, from London.’ ‘Over a hundred men of one sort or another all the year round,’ was the reply. ‘Capital shop for us, once too. But it’s sudden death to venture there now. I did real good biz at Barracaboo for the Shuffle Litho. Company. It wouldn’t pay, though, to chance back again.’ ‘Ah, that was the “Around the World” thing, wasn’t it? Didn’t come up to guarantee, eh?’ ‘Well, hardly,’ replied the other. ‘However, that wasn’t my fault, you know. All I had to do was to get the orders, which I did to the tune of a couple of hundred or thereabout.’ ‘That’s the worst of those things,’ said Mr Potts. ‘Instalments always make a mess of it. Then the agent loses his character, if nothing else. I was out delivering in the Western District for Shuffle Litho., and was glad to get away by the skin of my teeth. But it’s not only the personal danger I object to,’ continued Mr Potts, after a pause. ‘It is the, ahem, the moral degradation involved in such a pursuit—you know what I mean, sir?’ ‘Just so, just so,’ answered the other vaguely, with a hard stare at the round, red face looming through cigar smoke. ‘That’s what made me throw the line up,’ went on Mr Potts, ‘more than anything else. The money’s not clean, sir! I’d rather carry about a ton of print, and risk selling for cash at a fractional advance upon cost price.’ ‘That’s all right,’ replied his companion with a grin. ‘Only take my advice, and don’t trouble Barracaboo with your ton of print, or you’ll be very apt to leave it there. They won’t give you time to open your mouth. Ask “The Hermit,” if you don’t believe me.’ For a whole day Mr Potts drove around and about with a selection from his stock. But he never was allowed even a chance to exhibit a sample. Farmers, selectors, squatters, townsfolk, had all apparently quite made up their minds.