d over him and wagged his nicotine-dyed finger:

"You get the rest of our money! Understand? And you get them women
out!--or I tell you we'll blow you and your joint to Hoboken! Get
that?"

"I have understood," said Puma quietly; but his heavy face was a muddy
red now, and he choked a little when he spoke.

"Give us a date and stick to it," added Bromberg. "Set it yourself.
And after that we won't bother to do any more jawin'. We'll just
attend to business--_your_ business, Puma!"

After a long silence, Puma said calmly: "How much you want?"

"Ten thousand," said Sondheim.

"And them women out of this," added Bromberg.

"Or ve get you," ended Kastner in his deadly voice.

Puma lifted his head and looked intently at each one of them in turn.
And seemed presently to come to some conclusion.

Kastner forestalled him: "You try it some monkey trick and you try it
no more effer again."

"What's your date for the cash?" insisted Sondheim.

"February first," replied Puma quietly.

Kastner wrote it on the back of an envelope.

"Und dese vimmen?" he inquired.

"I'll get a lawyer----"

"The hell with that stuff!" roared Bromberg. "Get 'em out! Scare 'em
out! Jesus Christ! how long d'yeh think we're going to stand for being
hammered by that bunch o' skirts? They got a lot o' people sore on us
now. The crowd what uster come around is gettin' leery. And who are
these damned women? One of 'em was a White Nun, when they did the
business for the Romanoffs. One of 'em fired on the Bolsheviki--that
big blond girl with yellow hair, I mean! Wasn't she one of those
damned girl-soldiers? And look what she's up to now--comin' over here
to talk us off the platform!--the dirty foreigner!"

"Yes," growled Bromberg, "and there's that redheaded wench of
Vanya's!--some Grand Duke's slut, they say, before she quit him for
the university to start something else----"

Kastner cut in in his steely voice: "If you do not throw out these
women, Puma, we fix them and your hall and you--all at one time, my
friend. Also! Iss it then for February the first, our understanding?
Or iss it, a little later, the end of all your troubles, Angelo?"

Puma got up, nodded his acceptance of their ultimatum, and opened the
door for them.

When they trooped out, under the brick arch, they noticed his splendid
limousine waiting, and as they shuffled sullenly away westward,
Bromberg, looking back, saw Puma come out and jump lightly into the
car.

"S