To these sage but scarcely original observations Sternberg and Bloom gravely assented.
"In case you found a place for us in your office, what kind of an income do you think we might expect?" Mr. Gunterson asked.
"Well, we wouldn't take you at all unless we could satisfy you," replied McCoy. "And I swear I don't quite see how we could take on another company just now. How much are you getting now from Osgood? Well, if we couldn't do better than that, we'd rather pass you up—although I don't know of any company that looks better to me than the Guardian under its present management. How about it, Jake?"
Mr. Bloom considered deeply.
"New business of the class this office writes is hard to get," he said thoughtfully. "It don't fall off the trees into your lap. But we might do it if we gave up a couple of our smaller companies. If we threw out the German National and the Spokane Fire, we might do something."
The two companies named had removed their policies and supplies from the office only the previous day, their respective special agents, after an underwriting experience too painful to describe, having descended in grief and rage upon their Boston representatives when patience had ceased to be a virtue and self-preservation had become the salient motive.
"There's thirty thousand apiece, easy—say sixty thousand the first year. Yes, we could let them two go, and if you were in any kind of way liberal—if you wrote a fair line in the congested district—we could guarantee you sixty thousand, and I believe we'd make it seventy-five."
Mr. Gunterson calculated this with deliberation. It was a great deal more than the Guardian had been receiving from Silas Osgood and Company; it sounded too good to be real.
"What kind of a record have you had?" he asked cautiously.
"Record? Well, good for some of our companies and not so good for others. We've had some pretty hard knocks, but we don't write practically nothing but first-class business, and of course we write pretty good-sized lines; and when some sprinkled risk or a brick apartment house or a wool storage warehouse makes a total loss, it hits us pretty hard. Still, if you keep on taking on the best business, you're bound to make money in the long run. I suppose we turn down two thirds of what's offered to us over the counter."