"More bad news!" he exclaimed, as he re-entered the room. "The Jackson-Nebur Company say they can't make delivery of their order. I wonder what next."
"We don't need nothing more to cripple us," George declared, blankly.
"Any one of these blows is a knockout."
It was perhaps an hour later that Cherry entered unannounced.
"I just ran in for a minute to tell you something new. When I came up from the bank, the elevator boy at the hotel made a mistake and carried me past my floor. Without noticing the difference, I went down the hall, and whom should I run right into, coming out of a room, but our detective! As he opened the door I heard him say, 'Very well, sir, I'll report to-morrow.'"
"To whom was he reporting?"
"I don't know. A few minutes later I called you up, to tell you about it; but while I was waiting for my number, the operator evidently got the wires crossed or left a switch open, for I heard this much of a conversation:
"'Our contract covers fifty thousand cases at five dollars. We thought that was at least twenty cents under the market.'
"I was about to ring off when I remembered that you had sold your output of fifty thousand cases to Bloc & Company for five dollars a case, so I listened, on a chance, and heard another voice reply—"
"Whose voice?"
"I don't know. It said, 'We'll undersell that by one dollar.'