ared fiercely upon them. He strode across to the table held sacred to
himself and spread down a piece of cloth, bounded by many curves.
Heinrich Schnitt gave it but one comprehensive glance.

"Na, na, na!" he shrilly commented. "Here it is wrong!" And, grabbing
up a slice of chalk, he made a deft swoop toward the material. Suddenly
his arm stayed in mid air and he laid down the chalk with a muscular
effort. "I think I take this home," he firmly announced.

"Heinrich, you come back after the work. Just now we go with Mr. Gamble
to Schoppenvoll's and have a glass of Rheinthranen!" Ersten said.

"The Rheinthranen!" repeated Heinrich in awe; and for the first time
his eyes moistened. "Louis, we was always friends!" And they shook
hands.

Johnny Gamble, keen as he was, did not quite understand it; but,
nevertheless, he had penetration enough to stroll nonchalantly out into
the show-room, where Louis and Heinrich presently joined him,
chattering like a Kaffe-klatsch; and they all walked round to
Schoppenvoll's.

While Schnitt thanked Johnny for his interference until that modest
young man blushed, Ersten argued seriously in whispers with Shoppenvoll
to secure a bottle of the precious wine that only he and Schoppenvoll
and Kurzerhosen had a right to purchase. Johnny drank his with dull
wonder. It tasted just like Rhine wine!

While Heinrich Schnitt was back in the cutting room, carefully
selecting every coat in the shop to take home with him, Ersten drew
Johnny near the door.

"I fool him!" he announced with grinning cuteness. "I move right away.
You get my lease for the best price what that smart-Aleck Lofty offered
me. And another word: Whenever you want a favor you come to me!"

Johnny walked into the Lofty establishment with the feeling of a
Napoleon. "How much will you give me for the Ersten lease?" he
suggested out of a clear sky.

Young Willis Lofty sighed in sympathy with his bank-account.

"Have you really secured it?" he asked.

"I'm the winner," Johnny cheerfully assured him.

"If it's too much I'll build that tunnel," warned Lofty.

"Make me an offer."

"A hundred and twenty-five thousand."

"Nothing doing," stated Johnny with a smile. "There's no use fussing up
our time though. I can tell you, to the cent, how much I must have. At
four o'clock to-day I shall be nineteen hours behind my schedule, and I
want a day for a fresh start, which makes it twenty-six. At five
thousand an hour, that makes a