with his thumb and finger and produced a small yellow wad
about the size of a postage stamp. This he proceeded to unfold until it
took on the appearance of a hundred-dollar bill.

"He gives me this here," Jake announced, "and I give him the change for
a ten-dollar bill. So this here is a hundred-dollar bill, ain't it, and
it don't belong to me, which I come downtown I should give it him back
again. What isn't mine I don't want at all."

This was perhaps the longest speech that Jake had ever made, and he
paused to lick his dry lips for the peroration.

"And so," he concluded, handing the bill to Linkheimer, "here it is,
and--and nine dollars and ninety cents, please."

Linkheimer grabbed the bill automatically and gazed at the figures on it
with bulging eyes.

"Why," Abe gasped, "why, Linkheimer, you had four one-hundred-dollar
bills and a ten-dollar bill in the safe this morning. Ain't it?"

Linkheimer nodded. Once more he broke into a copious perspiration, as he
handed a ten-dollar bill to Jake.

"And so," Abe went on, "and so you must of took a hundred-dollar bill
out of the safe last night, instead of a ten-dollar bill. Ain't it?"

Linkheimer nodded again.

"And so you made a mistake, ain't it?" Abe cried. "And this here
feller Schenkmann didn't took no money out of the safe at all. Ain't
it?"

For the third time Linkheimer nodded, and Abe turned to his partner.

"What d'ye think of that feller?" he said, nodding his head in
Linkheimer's direction.

Morris shrugged, and Abe plunged his hands into his trousers pockets and
glared at Linkheimer.

"So, Linkheimer," he concluded, "you made a sucker out of yourself and
out of me too! Ain't it?"

"I'm sorry, Abe," Linkheimer muttered, as he folded away the
hundred-dollar bill in his wallet.

"I bet yer he's sorry," Morris interrupted. "I would be sorry too if I
would got a lawsuit on my hands like he's got it."

"What d'ye mean?" Linkheimer cried. "I ain't got no lawsuit on my
hands."

"Not yet," Morris said significantly, "but when Feldman hears of this,
you would quick get a summons for a couple of thousand dollars damages
which you done this young feller Schenkmann by making him false
arrested."

"It ain't no more than you deserve, Linkheimer," Abe added. "You're
lucky I don't sue you for trying to make trouble between me and my
partner yet."

For one brief moment Linkheimer regarded Abe sorrowfully. There were few
occasions to which Linkheimer