human
Say, kid, Johnson Boller began kindly.
gpt
You----
human
You don't understand, Anthony said hoarsely but more quietly.
gpt
I've never told you about the Dalton matter, because I've tried my best to forget the interview--but Dalton is the man who controls virtually the whole proprietary liniment market, barring only Fry's Imperial. My--my liniment, said Anthony, and there was an affectionate note in his voice which Johnson Boller had never heard before in connection with the Imperial,
human
Yes?
gpt
Well, Dalton came to the office one day about five years ago, having made an appointment to meet me personally there. He wanted to buy us out, and I wouldn't hear of it--partly sentiment and partly because he didn't want to pay enough. Then he tried his usual tactics of threatening to drive Imperial off the market, and I sat down and pointed out to him just what it would cost and what it would gain him. He's a hard devil, Johnson, and he was pretty angry, yet he saw the reason in what I told him.
human
Go on,
gpt
We parted on rather curious terms, groaned Anthony.
human
One might call it an armed truce, I suppose. He seemed to be willing to let matters rest as they were, and he has done just that ever since; but he told me in so many words that if ever I tried to break into his particular market, if ever, for any cause, I offended him in any way, he'd sail in and advertise me out of business.
gpt
Can he do it?
human
He can do it, Anthony said, with pained conviction.
gpt
He can do it, because he's able to spend a million where I spend ten thousand, and once he starts Fry's Imperial Liniment is as dead as Julius Cæsar. And when he learns about this thing----
human
He--he might never learn,
gpt
Hell learn; I'm done for! said he.
human
It's as good as done and over with now, Johnson. Almost every cent I have in the world is invested in the firm, you know, and once that goes to pieces I--why, great Heaven, Johnson! I'll have to get out and work for a living!