"Wonder what Harry would say if he heard about that wonderful business ability thing... "But what in thunder can we do to bring business to this bum joint?" He raked his surroundings with a discouraged glance. "Oh," he said thoughtfully, "hell!" Five minutes later Ben Sperry found him in the same position, his head bent in perplexed reverie. Sperry had been travelling for Gresham and Jones, a wholesale drug-house in Elmira, more years than I can remember. His friendship for Sam Graham, contracted during the days when Graham's was the drug-store of Radville, has survived the decay of the business. He's a square, decent man, Sperry, and has wasted many an hour trying to persuade Sam to pay a little more attention to the business. I suspect he suffered the shock of his placid life when he found Sam absent and the shop in the care of this spruce, well set-up young man. "Anything I can do for you?" chirped Duncan cheerfully, dropping off the counter as Sperry entered. "No-o; I just wanted to see old Sam. Is he upstairs?" "No, Mr. Graham's not in at present," Duncan told him civilly. Sperry wrinkled his brows over this problem. "You working here?" he asked. "Yes, sir." "Well, I'll be hanged!" "Let us hope not," said Duncan pleasantly. He waited a moment, a little irritated. "Sure there's nothing _I_ can do for you?" "No-o," said Sperry slowly, struggling to comprehend. "Thank you just the same." "Not at all." Duncan turned away. "You see," Sperry pursued, "I don't buy from drug-stores: I sell to 'em." Duncan faced about with new interest in the man. "Yes?" he said encouragingly. "My card," volunteered Sperry, fishing the slip of pasteboard from his waistcoat pocket. He dropped his sample case beside the stove and plumped down in the chair, to the peril of its existence. "I don't make this town very often," he pursued, while Duncan studied his card. "Sothern and Lee are the only people I sell to here, but I never miss a chance to chin a while with old Sam. So, having half an hour before train time, I thought I'd drop in." "Mr. Graham doesn't order from your house, then?" "Doesn't order from anybody, does he?" "I don't know; I've just come here. He'll be sorry to have missed you, though. He's just stepped out to wire your house--I gather from the fact that it's in Elmira; he mentioned that town, not the firm name--for some syrups." "You don't mean it!" Sperry gasped. "What's struck him all of a sudden? He ain't put in any new stock for ten years, I reckon." "Well, you see," Duncan explained artfully, "I've persuaded him, in a way, to try to make something out of the business here. We're going to do what we can, of course, in a small way at first." Sperry wagged a dubious head. "I dunno," he considered. "Sam's a nice old duffer, but he ain't got no business sense and never had; you can see for yourself how he's let everything run to seed here. Sothern and Lee took all his trade years ago."