face with his handkerchief.

"Well, it's like this, Mr. Paul----" he began, but the connoisseur of
antiques raised his hand.

"One moment, Sammet," he said. "You know as well as anybody else, and
better even, that a millionaire concern like the Hamsuckett Mills must
got to wait once in a while." He paused significantly. "If we didn't,"
he continued, "there's plenty of solvent concerns would be forced to the
wall--ain't it? Furthermore, if the Hamsuckett Mills did business the
way you want to, Sammet, I wouldn't keep my job as credit man and
treasurer very long."

Sammet nodded weakly and plied his handkerchief with more vigour, while
Elkan sat and stared at his acquaintance of Sunday night in unfeigned
astonishment.

"Then what is the use of talking, Sammet?" Paul said. "So long as you
are the only one standing out, why don't you make an end of it? How long
an extension does Dishkes want?"

"Two months," Finkman answered.

"And where is the agreement you fellows all signed?" Paul continued.

Elkan took a paper from the desk in front of Dishkes and passed it to
Paul, who drew from his waistcoat pocket an opulent gold-mounted
fountain pen. Then he walked over to Leon Sammet and handed him the pen
and the agreement.

"_Schreib_, Sammet," he said, "and don't make no more fuss about it."

A moment later Sammet appended a shaky signature to the agreement and
returned it, with the pen, to Paul.

A quarter of an hour later Jacob Paul sat in Elkan's office and smoked
one of Polatkin, Scheikowitz & Company's best cigars.

"Now I put it up to you, Lubliner," he said: "them Jacobean chairs are
pretty high at fifty dollars, but I want 'em, and I'm willing to give
you sixty for 'em."

Elkan smiled and made a wide gesture with both hands.

"My dear Mr. Paul," he said, "after what you done to-day for Dishkes
I'll make you a present of 'em--free for nothing."

"No, you won't do no such thing," Paul declared; "because I'm going to
sell 'em again and at a profit, as I may as well tell you."

"My worries what you are going to do with 'em!" Elkan declared. "But one
thing I ain't going to do, Mr. Paul--I ain't going to make no profit on
you; so go ahead and take the chairs at what I paid for 'em--and that's
the best I could do for you."

It required no further persuasion for Jacob Paul to draw a fifty-dollar
check to Elkan's order; and as he rose to leave Elkan pressed his hand
warmly.

"Come up and see me, Mr. Paul,