Chapter XLIII - Page 2

Chesterton set the whole world laughing
with a series of alleged non-partisan essays on the subject, and
the whole affair, controversy and controversialists, was well-nigh
swept into the pit by a thundering broadside from George Bernard
Shaw. Needless to say the arena was crowded with hosts of lesser
lights, and the dust and sweat and din became terrific.

"It is a most marvellous happening," Singletree, Darnley & Co.
wrote Martin, "a critical philosophic essay selling like a novel.
You could not have chosen your subject better, and all contributory
factors have been unwarrantedly propitious. We need scarcely to
assure you that we are making hay while the sun shines. Over forty
thousand copies have already been sold in the United States and
Canada, and a new edition of twenty thousand is on the presses. We
are overworked, trying to supply the demand. Nevertheless we have
helped to create that demand. We have already spent five thousand
dollars in advertising. The book is bound to be a record-breaker."

"Please find herewith a contract in duplicate for your next book
which we have taken the liberty of forwarding to you. You will
please note that we have increased your royalties to twenty per
cent, which is about as high as a conservative publishing house
dares go. If our offer is agreeable to you, please fill in the
proper blank space with the title of your book. We make no
stipulations concerning its nature. Any book on any subject. If
you have one already written, so much the better. Now is the time
to strike. The iron could not be hotter."

"On receipt of signed contract we shall be pleased to make you an
advance on royalties of five thousand dollars. You see, we have
faith in you, and we are going in on this thing big. We should
like, also, to discuss with you the drawing up of a contract for a
term of years, say ten, during which we shall have the exclusive
right of publishing in book-form all that you produce. But more of
this anon."

Martin laid down the letter and worked a problem in mental
arithmetic, finding the product of fifteen cents times sixty
thousand to be nine thousand dollars. He signed the new contract,
inserting "The Smoke of Joy" in the blank space, and mailed it back
to the publishers along with the twenty storiettes he had written
in the days before he discovered the formula for the newspaper
storiette. And promptly as the United States mail could deliver
and return, came Singletree, Darnley & Co.'s check for five
thousand dollars.

"I want you to come down town with me, Maria, this afternoon about
two o'clock," Martin said, the morning the check arrived. "Or,
better, meet me at Fourteenth and Broadway at two o'clock. I'll be
looking out for