Van Dorn was becoming a little impatient--it was his scheme. Perner rose to a sitting position on the couch. "Why, look!" said he. "We send the paper free for two weeks to each of the twenty names sent by each subscriber. That's forty papers free for every subscriber that comes." "Of course," admitted Livingstone; "but some of those twenty names--most of them--will subscribe." "Certainly; and each one that does so will send twenty more names, which means forty more free papers--forty papers besides the fifty-two they are to receive afterward, or ninety-two papers in all. Ninety-two papers will cost us, mailed, something like seventy-five cents; the premium will cost us at least fifty cents more, even where we charge for postage and packing. Then there is the twenty-five cents cash we pay to the sender of names. Total, one dollar and fifty cents outlay, for which we receive one dollar cash in return." Perner looked steadily first at Livingstone, then at Van Dorn. Neither of them answered for a moment, and both became a trifle grave. Then Van Dorn said: "But the advertising, Perny--you forget that. Even if we do lose money on subscriptions the first few months, we can afford it for the sake of a subscription list that will swell the advertising returns." "By gad, yes," said Livingstone. "That's so--the advertising!" Perner lay back on the couch wearily. "Yes," he admitted; "the advertising ought to help. I keep forgetting that. I wish Bates would make a statement, though, of just what he's done in that line. He talks enough and seems to be getting along. He's kept pretty straight lately, too." "Why don't you call on him for a statement?" asked Livingstone. "Well, I have meant to, but he's so peculiar, you know, and I didn't want to offend him." "No; of course, we can't afford to do that now," Van Dorn agreed. "We're under obligations to Bates for placing our advertising with Jackson. I don't believe anybody else would have taken it without money down. Bates having worked there once is the reason he did it." Livingstone was painting on his picture of the bread line. "I've a mind to make one of these fellows look like Bates," he laughed, "out of gratitude." "Do it," urged Perner. "He'll be there some day if he keeps on drinking." "How much advertising did we take, in all?" asked Van Dorn, presently. Perner went somewhat into detail in his reply: "Well, you see, we made the 'Sunday-School Union' a page instead of a half-page so we could get in the big cut of the Bible, and we took a half-page instead of a quarter in 'Boy's Own' so's to get in the gun and the camera, with a small cut of the watch. Then we took a page each in two school papers to get in the gun and Bible both, and the small cuts of the watch and camera. All these, of course, are in addition to what we had counted on before. It amounts to about thirteen hundred dollars in all."