rs for your _guarantirt_; this is my shop and if
you don't want to stay here you don't got to."

He seized a pressing-iron in token that the interview was ended and Abe
and Max started for the stairs without another word. As they reached the
sidewalk Abe paused. Across the street a dairy lunchroom displayed its
white-enamel sign and through the plate-glass window he thought he
discerned a familiar figure. He ran to the opposite sidewalk and entered
the restaurant, closely followed by Max, just as Sidney Koblin was
eating the last crumbs of a portion of zwieback and coffee.

"Hello, Sidney!" Abe said. "What's the matter with you? Why don't you go
back to your father?"

Sidney rose to his feet and looked first at Abe and then at the Raincoat
King.

"What for?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Because he asks you to," Abe replied, "and because I didn't got no
right to butt in the way I did, Sidney. After all, your father is your
father."

"What's biting you now?" Sidney exclaimed. "Ain't you told me this
morning I should do what I did?"

Abe nodded sadly.

"And didn't you say me and the old man couldn't give each other a square
deal even if we wanted to?"

Abe nodded again.

"Then I'm going to stick to my job," Sidney declared as he walked toward
the cashier's desk.

Abe and Max trailed after him and when they reached the sidewalk Max
seized his son by the arm.

"Sidney, _leben_," he said; "listen to me. Come and eat anyhow a decent
lunch and we'll talk this thing over."

"What for?" Sidney said. "I've had as much as I want to eat, and besides
I've got to see a fellow up at the Prince Clarence Hotel. I'll be at
Riesenberger's to dinner to-night about the usual time."

"Oh, you will, will you?" Max cried. "Well, all I got to say is you've
got to pay for it yourself."

Sidney broke into a laugh.

"That worries me a whole lot!" he said. "I've made enough out of my
commissions to-day already to pay a whole week's board down there."

He turned and started across the street, but as he reached the curb he
paused.

"Tell mommer she shouldn't worry herself," he said. "I'm all right."

Max looked at Abe with a sickly grin.

"I think he is too, Abe," he murmured. "Would you come over to Broadway
and take maybe a little lunch with me?"

"Zwieback and coffee is good enough for me," Abe replied.

Max linked his arm in Abe's.

"You shouldn't be mad at me, Abe," he said sadly. "I am all turned
upside down about tha