"Everybody does it," was his calmly brief rejoinder.
"You mean Kendrick, to be exact… I'm sorry, but I don't see it that way."
"Do you mean that you would rather pass up a half-million-dollar line than share the spoils?"
"It isn't a question of choice, Hilmer. You must know I don't want to lose five cents' worth of business. But there are some things a gentleman doesn't do."
He was sorry once the last remark had escaped him, but Hilmer didn't seem disconcerted by the covert inference.
"Scruples are like laws," Hilmer returned, affably. "I never saw one yet that couldn't be gotten round legitimately."
"Oh yes, you can subscribe to any one of the Ten Commandments with your fingers crossed, if you like that kind of a game. But I don't."
Hilmer moved in his seat with an implication of leave-taking. "Well, every man to his own taste," he said, as he reached for the blue print and proceeded to fold it up.
Starratt leaned toward him. His attitude was strangely earnest.
"Do you really like to participate in a game you know to be unfair,
Hilmer?—dishonest, in fact?"