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 parts for his redesign, assembled them, and tried the toy.

It worked just a little better than the product Triesting was making. Worked better and would be cheaper to produce. And it didn't make use of the stamping made by Tredel & Morton.

In fact, it was what Triesting Company would have designed and manufactured unless they were determined to make use of that stamping, whether it added expense or not.

Which didn't make sense.

He took it easy. Think it over for a while, be sure. His mind worked on it, always came up with the same answer.

"Bruce!"

Morton looked up.

"That stamping we're making for Triesting—"

Morton nodded.

"Do we ever get rejections?"

Morton looked surprised. "Funny you should bring that up, Jim. Matter of fact, when we ... I, that is ... signed the contract, it called for very rigid specifications.

"We magnarayed the first batch, as a matter of routine, and found that fifty percent of the parts wouldn't meet spec. Since they were only for toys, I had them delivered anyhow. I wasn't trying to pull anything. But I didn't want to take a loss on the parts. I thought I'd see how their receiving department inspection compared to ' our own inspection."

He paused. Then: "There was no squawk on the first batch. I figured their requirements weren't so stiff as they made out to begin with. Very often they aren't, of course, when there's no stress involved. Since then we've been shipping them full production, and they've been accepting and paying."

"Hm-m-m. Are we still inspecting?"

"Sure. Under the circumstances we haven't made any effort to better the product. The records show that about fifty percent still wouldn't meet their original spec."

That didn't mean much one way or another, Tredel realized. Lots of little companies, since the war, Were still specifying quality that had gone with war contracts. It didn't mean anything in a lot of instances, except that it gave them a convenient way to break a contract if they wanted to.

Still, it stayed in his mind.

Two weeks later he went to San Francisco on business. There wasn't too much hurry, so he went by car, taking Edith with him, so that it was, in part, a pleasure trip. It would do her good, after the neglect he had been showing her.

He managed to squeeze yet another purpose out of it. Across the country, in towns picked at random, at toy stores selected thoroughly by chance, he bought Mystery Ray Pistols.

When they returned he had sixtyeight of the toy pistols. He disassembled them, removed the NOT TO BE OPENED—