continued Perner, "when these new names begin to come, we'll
commence on the third round of the first issue to the names they send,
and so on to a fourth and even a fifth. We must send as many rounds of
the first issue as possible, for it contains the first chapters of our
serials."

"That's so!" interjected Livingstone, "it does!"

"Of course, our first and second issues," Perner went on, "will have to
be dated ahead, because we'll start on them about the 1st of October.
But the third issue can come in in regular place, and by the time we get
to the third round of the first issue, and the second round of the
second issue, and the first round of the third issue, we'll have all the
names in this country; and by the second round of the third issue they
will all be on our subscription books, and we'll have--even counting
that only one out of four families subscribe--we'll have four million
subscribers, and at least three million dollars in the bank to get out
the paper with for a year, to say nothing of the advertisements, which
will bring in on a circulation like that at least twelve thousand
dollars a page, or, allowing three pages, about one million eight
hundred thousand dollars a year in round numbers."

The clams had come and gone, and the meat had been served. Barrifield
made a feeble attempt to do the honors, and Livingstone shaped his lips
as if to speak. Neither effort was successful. The four sat silent,
looking far beyond the fear of penury and the dreams of avarice into a
land where mountains were banked with jewels and all the rivers ran
gold. Indeed, the face of Livingstone seemed glorified by a sort of
ecstasy. The revulsion fell first upon Van Dorn, and wakened in him that
spirit of the ludicrous which was never far distant from any of them.

"It's all right, of course," he began with assumed gravity. "We're
certain to be millionaires when we get to going, but what I want to know
is whether, in the meantime, we can stand off the printer."

The others laughed.

"You see, I know printers," continued Van Dorn. "I had a cousin who was
a printer, and I've seen fellows try to stand him off. He nearly always
had his sleeves rolled up, and when a man came to stand him off, he used
to walk back to the sink, with the fellow following and talking; and my
cousin would wash his hands under the tap while he listened, and then
wipe them on the towel that hung over it. You never saw a printer's
towel, did you? Well