“Guns and revolvers.”
“The devil you are! So am I.”
CHAPTER IV.
I didn't fancy going to a town with a competitor. I have now been on the road a good many years, and I do not fancy it to-day. If I can get in there one train ahead of him I will strain every nerve to do it, but rather than go in on the same train I would hang back and let him have the first “go” at the town and take my chances for what he leaves.
When two men selling the same goods are in a town together the dealers usually take advantage of it. They tell the first man that they may want this or that, “if they can buy it right,” and, after getting his price, say he can come in later. He knows very well that this means his competitor is to be consulted also, and he must have a very stiff backbone indeed if he does not cut his own prices at once.
So when my neighbor on the train told me he also was going to Rossmore and was selling guns and revolvers, I felt my courage ooze out of my fingers. He handed me a card, with a good-natured smile, and I read:
SHIVERHIM & GAILY,
Philadelphia.
I don't like to hand out a card as an introduction of myself to other traveling men, so I told him my name and that of my house, and we considered ourselves acquainted.