we'd had the
Elsass-Lothringen! There's no use of talking--we've been writing too
freely. We must cut out the skates. Now, let's get together and land
Gunterson."

"That's all right, too. But if we cut out the skates, what'll we have
left? Anyhow, the main question is how'll we land Gunterson?"
Sternberg persisted. The mind of this large man moved as slowly as a
house in a small town being transported from one lot to another by one
mule, a rope, and a windlass. McCoy's mind more resembled the agile
and evasive flea.

"I bet my cousin Billy Gallagher knows him. Come to think of it, Billy
was special agent up here for the Florida Fire and Marine at the time
Gunterson was running them. We can square Billy all right, and I
believe Billy can put it over."

"It looks like a cinch to me," said Bloom, lighting a cigarette.

"It is," said McCoy, briefly.

It was. And so it came about that in the forenoon of the following day
a solemn trio of men, two Hebrews and an Irishman, were bowing a polite
welcome to the distinguished Vice-President of the Guardian of New
York, who, in company with his friend Mr. Gallagher, now an independent
loss adjuster, had honored them with a call. Mr. Gunterson confessed
that he was considering a change in the Guardian's Boston
representation; he had not gone so far as to commit himself, but he was
looking around--of course among the few agents with whom non-Conference
companies predominated.

It had been agreed by the trio that McCoy should do the talking for the
firm, and McCoy came from an island where the art of persuasive
conversation is far from extinct.

"Well, Mr. Gunterson, I want to say right off the reel that Sternberg,
Bloom, and McCoy would like very much to take on the Guardian. The
Guardian's got a good name, and its policy sells well; and in the last
few weeks, especially--" he threw out suggestively.

"What's the last few weeks got to do with it?" inquired the innocent
and obliging visitor.

"Well, I meant the company's desirability from the agent's point of
view. You see, they've never had a really broad-gauge man directing
their underwriting before you took charge. Nice people, but narrow,
you understand--not a company that an agent would feel drawn to.
O'Connor never had no nerve--or if he did, Wintermuth never let him
show it. Now, no really progressive agent can do business with a petty
piker. To get the best results you've got to let your agent run h