Part 8 (1/2)

”You'll never get another puller like Old Lame-Boy,” Hal heard the head designer say with a chuckle, and his father reply: ”If I could I'd start another proprietary as big as Certina.”

”Where does that lead to?” inquired Hal, as they approached a side pa.s.sage sloping slightly down, and barred by a steel door.

”The old building. The manufacturing department is over there.”

”Compounding the medicine, you mean?”

”Yes. Bottling and s.h.i.+pping, too.”

”Aren't we going through?”

”Why, yes: if you like. You won't find much to interest you, though.”

Nor, to Hal's surprise, did Dr. Surtaine himself seem much concerned with this phase of the business. Apparently his hand was not so close in control here as in the other building. The men seemed to know him less well.

”All this pretty well runs itself,” he explained negligently.

”Don't you have to keep a check on the mixing, to make sure it's right?”

”Oh, they follow the formula. No chance for error.”

They walked amidst c.h.i.n.king trucks, some filled with empty, some with filled and labeled bottles, until they reached the carton room where scores of girls were busily inserting the bottles, together with folded circulars and advertising cards, into pasteboard boxes. At the far end of this room a pungent, high-spiced scent, as of a pickle-kitchen with a fortified odor underlying it, greeted the unaccustomed nose of the neophyte.

”Good!” he sniffed. ”How clean and appetizing it smells!”

Enthusiasm warmed the big man's voice once more.

”Just what it is, too!” he exclaimed. ”Now you've hit on the second big point in Certina's success. It's easy to take. What's the worst thing about doctors' doses? They're nasty. The very thought of 'em would gag a cat. Tell people that here's a remedy better than the old medicine and pleasant to the taste, and they'll take to it like ducks to water.

Certina is the first proprietary that ever tasted good. Next to Old Lame-Boy, it's my biggest idea.”

”Are we going into the mixing-room?” asked his son.

”If you like. But you'll see less than you smell.”

So it proved. A heavy, wet, rich vapor shrouded the s.p.a.ce about a huge cauldron, from which came a sound of steady plas.h.i.+ng. Presently an attendant gnome, stripped to the waist, appeared, nodded to Dr.

Surtaine, called to some one back in the mist, and shortly brought Hal a small gla.s.s br.i.m.m.i.n.g with a pale-brown liquid.

”Just fresh,” he said. ”Try it.”

”My kidneys are all right,” protested Hal. ”I don't need any medicine.”

”Take it for a bracer. It won't hurt you,” urged the gnome.

Hal looked at his father, and, at his nod, put his lips to the gla.s.s.

”Why, it tastes like spiced whiskey!” he cried.

”Not so far out of the way. Columbian spirits, caramel, cinnamon and cardamom, and a touch of the buchu. Good for the blues. Finish it.”

Hal did so and was aware of an almost instantaneous glow.