a greenhorn is
supposed to be encouraged. "You're wise, all right, Pickins. We
wouldn't do business with you if you weren't. You see, we're putting
ourselves in danger of the penitentiary and we have to be careful.
More than that, wise people come back; and, with a dozen or so like
Mr. Pickins shoving the queer for us, we put out about all we can
make. Nobody in the business, Mr. Pickins, gets as high a price for
green-goods as we do, and nobody in the business keeps all their
customers as we do. That's because our output is so good."

This, which was one of the rehearsed speeches, went off very well, and
they began to feel comfortable again.

"That's me, by Jinks!" announced Pickins, slapping his leg. "I'll be
one of your steady customers, all right. When'll I get this first
twenty thousand?"

"Right away," said Mr. Phelps, rising. "Just wait a moment till I talk
it over with the engraver and see if he has the supply ready."

"The supply's all right," declared Wallingford. "These boys will 'tend
to the business with you, Mr. Pickins. I'm very glad to have met you.
I'll probably see you to-night at the show. I have to go back and look
after a little more engraving just now." And, shaking hands cordially
with Mr. Pickins, he rose to go.

"Wait a minute, Mombley," said Phelps amidst a general scowl, and
he walked outside with Wallingford. "Fine work, old man," he
complimented, keeping his suavity with no little effort. "We can
go right in and pick our bunch of posies any minute."

"Go right ahead!" said Wallingford heartily. "I'm glad to have helped
you out a little."

Mr. Phelps looked at him in sour speculation.

"Of course you're in on it," he observed with a great air of making a
merely perfunctory remark.

"Me?" inquired Wallingford in surprise. "Not on your life. I only
played engraver for accommodation. I thought I did a grand little
piece of work, too."

"But we can't go through without you," insisted Mr. Phelps
desperately, ignoring the other's maddening complacency and sticking
to the main point. "It takes twenty thousand and we only have five
thousand apiece. We're looking to you for the other five."

Wallingford looked him squarely in the eyes, with an entire change of
manner, and chuckled.

"There are four reasons, Phelps, why I won't," he kindly explained.
"The first is, I never do anything in partnership; second, I never
pike; third, I won't take a fall out of any game that has the
brown-a