until past five o'clock, and the three men worked well together. George Lockwood asked the leading questions, Ray Turner would give the straightforward answers, Charley Bohm would embellish Turner's answers; but in Bohm's supplementary and lengthy remarks there was always some point of information that had not been included in Turner's terser replies. Turner had the bookkeeping mind and saw the enterprise as a structure of arithmetical figures. Bohm, it developed, had not at first seen the enterprise as a promising proposition, and had not tried to persuade Turner to invest in it. With him it was going to be a modest, sentimental speculation, in which he was thinking in terms of $25,000. But as he talked, Turner had caught some of his enthusiasm, and before long Turner was envisioning a business enterprise that could match the recent startling success of Eskimo Pie, the chocolate-coated ice cream that had become a legend. "I thought of Eskimo Pie, too," said George Lockwood. "Ah!, you've had me wondering why you jumped right in with both feet," said Ray Turner. "Oh, that occurred to me right away," said Lockwood. "This candy won't have the novelty that Eskimo Pie had, but it has something in its favor to make up for that." "What are you thinking of?" said Turner. "Ice cream melts," said George Lockwood. "This candy doesn't need refrigeration. You can put a stack of these candies on a cigar-store counter, and you can't do that with Eskimo Pie. The retailer won't have to buy a nickel's worth of extra equipment." Turner smiled at Bohm. "You're echoing what Ray said to me three months ago," said Bohm. "Well, I'm a practical man, just as Ray is. I see the dollars-and-cents aspect. At the same time, though, my enthusiasm for this is partly based on a conversation Pen and I had this morning. After our conversation I was ripe for an investment of this kind. It's highly speculative, but it's an investment nevertheless. I'm damned tired of the stock market." "I can't say I'm tired of it," said Charley Bohm. "But I'm inclined to be bearish." George Lockwood looked at him before speaking. "Is that because you like being on the short side?" "I go from short to long, whichever way I think is going to make me some money," said Bohm. "Admit it, everybody knows you're generally bearish' said Turner. "Personally, I think we're in for a five-year boom." "Beginning when?" said Lockwood. "Beginning about now." "You mean of course a stock-market boom," said Lockwood. "Of course, although based on what I see going on all over the country. Expansion. New industry. Employment figures." "But wouldn't you agree with me that stocks generally are too high?" "Charley says that, but I don't think so, and even if they are a little high, the economy is going to catch up. We'll keep old Cal in Washington for another six years, and business will have a free hand." "Well, Ray, I see that you and I are going to have to avoid one topic. The stock market." "What are you complaining about, George? You've made plenty of money in it." "Yes, and I'd like to hold on to it. That's why I'm investing in this candy, a business that I know absolutely nothing about, but that's at least a business. I think it made more sense to put money in Florida real estate. At least those people have a place to lie down." "Am I to understand that you don't think it's wise to be in the market?" "It's wise if you're willing to admit frankly that you're gambling. But it isn't wise if you think of it any other way. Because if you look at it any other way, you're deceiving yourself, and when you start deceiving yourself, you're not being wise. About anything." George Lockwood unconsciously looked at the door through which his brother had passed. "I could point out that you may be deceiving yourself, George," said Turner. "A hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth." "No. I'm like that ancestor of ours that opened a store on the Conestoga Road. There was some risk, and he happened to lose. But
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