The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 258: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

204 from between his lps, examined it all over, put it back again, and drew two large mouthfuls of smoke, which he expelled with every mark of apprecia- tion. “Then all I’ve got to say,” he com- mented, “is that your wife made the best bargain I ever heard of in the to- bacco line. Where did she get them? ” “Gunther & Walkley’s. The man who sold them told her they were made by a new firm, and just put on the market.” “Hm-m-m,” said Mr Butterworth meditatively. “ That may account for it. Sort of advertising dodge. Or else they've got hold of some secret in the way of treating tobacco which ought to make their fortunes.” ‘* Looks like it,” assented Mr. Scales, who had great faith in his friend’s per- <picacity. “I made forty out of a little flier in pork this morning,” murmured Mr. Butterworth, half inaudibly. “Just what I was thinking myself,” sald Mr. Scales. “Khe” queried the other. “ What d’ye mean? ” “The same as you mean, I suppose,” replied Mr. Scales. “‘ Don’t think you’re going to have the good thing all to yourself, Harry. I had a check for fifty from Uncle Ehas this morning. Told me to buy myself something for a birth- day present. I know now what [’ll buy.” “Some of these cigars, I suppose,” said Mr. Butterworth, with an assump- tion of carelessness. “ Precisely,” answered the host. “ My wife is the discoverer, and consequently I have first call.” “ But if it hadn’t been for me you wouldn’t have known they were any good,” complained the other. “If it comes to that I have as good a right to priority as you have.” ‘Granted,’ said Mr. Scales after brief reflection. “I only want to be fair. I can’t afford more than fifteen hundred, and I’ve no doubt there will be plenty left over for you.” “And if there isn’t,” said Mr. But- terworth decidedly, “ I’m going to have half—don’t you make any mistake about that, George. I never saw such an ungrateful fellow.” THE ARGOSY. Mr. Scales combatted this accusation, and finally agreed, after several unsuc- cessful attempts to shake his guest’s logic, to an equal division of all the “Upper Ten” cigars they could pur- chase. “We'll go down first thing in the morning,” said Mr. Butterworth. “ I'll call in for you.” “But that’s taking you out of vour way, Harry,” remonstrated his friend. ‘“ Better meet at the store.” “No,” said Mr. Butterworth. “111 call for you. And don’t forget I’m coming,” he added meaningly. “ Tie a knot m your handkerchief to remember it by.” Mr. Scales was much pained by this lack of confidence, and said so, but Mr. Butterworth was inexorable, and the two parted with this understanding, having first sampled a couple of cigars out of the other box, to make quite sure that there had been no mistake on the part of the manufacturers. Mr. Seales did not think it necessary to take his wife into his confidence, reasoning that the time spent in over- coming possible objections to so large an outlay might allow Mr. Butterworth to get ahead of him. To her artless in- quiries he replied that the cigars were of an excellent quality, and that when that hundred was finished he would probably buy another. “ ow many did you say, sir?” asked the tobacco salesman at Gunther’s as he listened to an order from two ex- tremely well dressed gentlemen which fairly took his breath away. : “Fifteen hundred apiece,” said Mr. Scales, constituting himself spokesman. “You said you had over four thousand, didn’t you? ” “Three thousand ‘Upper Tens’? ” inquired the clerk again, hardly able to believe his ears. “Certainly,” replied Mr. Scales testily. “ Of course, if you don’t want the order ” The clerk hastened to reassure him. It was so seldom, he said, that custom- ers ordered so many cheap cigars at once that he wished to be positive about the brand. He took down the names and dresses, reeeived the money, ad- and — ECOMRRIC LOG (GO) awa