hundred and thirty thousand dollars. I
paid Ersten a hundred thousand. Grand total: two hundred and thirty
thousand."

"I don't understand your figures," protested Lofty.

"It's a private code," laughed the leaseholder, "but that's the price."

"I won't pay it," threatened the young merchant.

"Build your tunnel then," returned Johnny--but pleasantly,
nevertheless. "Don't let's be nervous, Lofty. I might ask you a lot
more, but that's the exact amount the system I'm playing calls for. I
don't want any more and I won't take any less!"

Lofty studied his face contemplatively for a moment and rang for his
treasurer.

"How did you get Ersten?" he was curious to know; and Johnny told him,
to their mutual enjoyment.

At the nearest drug store Johnny called up Constance.

"Heinrich Schnitt is fixing your coat!" he announced.

"Danke!" she cried. "Did you get the lease?"

"Yes, and sold it to Lofty," he enthusiastically informed her. "The
schedule is paid up until four o'clock to-morrow afternoon."

"Oh!" she gasped. "Wait a minute." He held the telephone while she
consulted the score board and did some figuring. "That makes five
hundred thousand of your million! Just half!"

"I'm coming around to see that diagram," he hastily stated.

CHAPTER XVII

IN WHICH THE STRAW SAILOR HAT OF JOHNNY PLAYS AN EMBARRASSING ROLE

"My dear," observed Mr. Courtney as he and his wife approached the
jessamine summer-house, "do you pick your week-end guests from a city
directory or do you draw the names from a hat?" Constance Joy, sitting
in the summer-house with Johnny Gamble, rose and laughed lightly as a
warning.

"My dear," retorted Mrs. Courtney very sweetly indeed and all unheeding
of the laugh, "I pick them by a better system than you employ when you
invite stag parties. You usually need to be introduced to your guests.
Just whom would you like to have me send home?"

"Paul Gresham for one," replied Courtney bluntly, "and the entire
Wobbles tribe, with their friend Birchard, for some more."

"I could be perfectly happy without them myself, Ben," sighed his wife,
"but the Wobbles bachelors invite themselves whenever they please, and
Paul Gresham was asked on account of Constance."

Constance, in the summer-house, laughed again, although less happily
than before, and dropped her portfolio as loudly as possible, while
Johnny Gamble merely grinned.

"That's what I wondered about," persisted the grizzled financ