"Well," asked Roger, "what about it? Business been picking up any since
then?"
"Yes, sir!" was the answer. "We didn't lose a cent last week! We made
money! Fifteen dollars!"
"Good Lord, Johnny, we're getting rich."
"But that's nothing," John continued. "The fact of the matter is, Mr. Gale,
I have been working lately on a new line I thought of. And now it's got
agoing so fast it's getting clean away from me!" Again he stopped, and
swallowed hard.
"Out with it, then," said Roger.
"I got it from the war," said John. "The papers are still half full of war
news, and that's what's keeping our business down--because we ain't
adopting ourselves to the new war conditions. So I figured it like this.
Say there are a million people over here in America who've got either
friends or relations in the armies over there. Say that all of 'em want to
get news--not just this stuff about battles, but real live news of what's
happened to Bill. Has Bill still got his legs and arms? Can he hold down a
job when he gets home? News which counts for something! See? A big new
market! Business for us! So I tried to see what I could do!" John
excitedly shifted his crutches. Roger was watching intently.
"Go on, Johnny."
"Sure, I'll go on! One night I went to a library where they have English
papers. I went over their files for about a month. I took one Canadian
regiment--see?--and traced it through, and I got quite a story.
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