"You've got to do something for an advertiser on a big order like this, Boyee," urged his father.
"Let's see the copy," put in Ellis. The trained journalistic eye ran over the sheets. "Lot of gaudy slush about copper mines in general," he observed, "and not much information on Streaky Mountain."
"It's an undeveloped property," said McQuiggan.
"Strong on geography," continued Ellis. "'In the immediate vicinity,'" he read from one sheet, "'lie the Copper Monarch Mine paying 40 per cent dividends, the Deep Gulch Mine, paying 35 per cent, the Three Sisters, Last Chance, Alkali Spring Mines, all returning upwards of 25 per cent per annum: and immediately adjacent is the famous Strike-for-the-West property which enriches its fortunate stockholders to the tune of 75 per cent a year!' Are you on the same range as the Strike-for-the-West, Mr. McQuiggan?"
"It's an adjacent property," growled the mining man. "What d'you know about copper?"
"Oh, I've seen a little mining, myself. And a bit of mining advertising. That's quite an ad. of yours, McQuiggan."
"I wrote that ad.," said Dr. Surtaine blandly: "and I challenge anybody to find a single misstatement in it."
"You're safe. There isn't any. And scarcely a single statement. But if you wrote it, I suppose it goes."
"And the interview, too," rasped McQuiggan.
"It's usual," said Ellis to Hal. "The tail with the hide: the soul with the body, when you're selling."