"Quit your jokin'," Mr. Perkins returned, shifting uneasily. "Where was it, though?"
"I don't know. I saw your name on your grip, if that's what you mean?"
"Oh, yas. Yas." Followed a pause, Mr. Perkins evidently searching his whirling brain for something to say. "Have a cigar?"
"Thanks. I'll smoke it later, when no-one's around."
The book-agent lighted up.
"How's business?" Hector resumed.
"Pretty good," Mr. Perkins admitted.
"Sold lots of stock?"
"Oh, yas. Yas!"
"I wonder if he's foolin' me?" Perkins was thinking. But Hector was perfectly serious.