ly, as he had done on the other
floors. When he reached 320 he found the door locked and a hand
pointing to 318 as the entrance. On the glass of that door he saw a
sign which read:

NOVELTIES AND TOYS
A. CHRISTENSEN

Ted opened the door. A man was inside, his feet perched upon a desk
and he was reading a German newspaper.

"Paper, sir?" Ted asked him.

"No," was the answer. He did not even glance up.

"I have a Staats-Zeitung and a Wochen-Blatt," coaxed Ted. All this
time he was taking stock of the room.

"A Wochen-Blatt? I'll take one," the man became interested. He offered
a half dollar to Ted.

"I haven't the change, but I will get it for you." Ted was fighting
for time, so that he could form impressions.

"And run away with my money?" the man sneered. "Not on your life. I'll
wait until later."

"You can hold all my papers. I'll come back."

The man grudgingly gave the boy the money. At the corner store Ted
found his two friends; the automobile had long since left.

"Good work," Strong commented, after hearing Ted. "Now, how can we get
that fellow out of the building for half an hour?"

"When I suggested going out for the change," volunteered Ted, "he
didn't want to trust me and said: 'I'll wait until later.' Perhaps he
intends going out."

"Well, here is one way to coax him to go a little sooner. A German
wants what he wants when he wants it, and he never stops wanting it
until he gets it. When you go back, Ted, insist on being paid twice as
much as the paper sells for. He probably will not pay it. He will
consider it a holdup. But he will want that paper and it may hurry his
departure. It is almost lunch-time anyway.

"Walker, you go to all the news-stands within three square blocks and
also any stores you may see that sell newspapers and buy up any
Wochen-Blatts they have. That ought to keep our friend busy trying to
get what he wants and so give us more time. We will all meet in Room
418. I'll steal up while you two are wrangling over your high-handed
outrage, Ted. Walker can come any time. There is small chance that he
will be recognized. You see," Strong added, his eyes smiling, "that's
the value of having the ordinary face Walker has. He looks like
seventy-five million other folks, so no one would notice him."

Ted rushed back to the office. "Everybody is poor around here or else
they don't want to make change. My, what trouble." He was