"No," insisted Mr. Morton, "there's some expense and trouble, you not living in Riverton, You'll have to hire a rig to visit some of my former debtors. I've stated the proposition. Here, I'll write you out an authority to act as my agent."
Frank arose to leave the office half-an-hour later a satisfied and grateful boy. Mr. Morton had quizzed him considerably as to his future plans. He was down on the mail order business, for he had made a failure of it himself, but he said a good many enlightening things that at least warned Frank of the pitfalls in his business course.
"Please, one more word, Mr. Morton," said Frank, taking up his repacked suit case—"about those apple corers of yours?"
"Whew!" cried his host with a wry grimace, "have I got to think of that grand flare-up again?"
"There's a lot of them, you know, among the salvage?" suggested Frank.
"Yes, and there would have been a lot more if the fire hadn't stopped returns," declared Mr. Morton. "That was a bad investment."
"Did you patent the apple corer Mr. Morton?" asked Frank.
"No—yes—my attorney filed the caveat, I believe. I don't think we ever completed the pat-
