the burglar and bust it up for me."

Feldman touched the button on his desk.

"Bring me the draft of the contract between Potash & Perlmutter and
Louis Grossman that I dictated last month," he said to the boy who
answered.

In a few minutes the boy returned with a large envelope. He was
instructed never to come back empty-handed when asked to bring anything,
and, in this instance the envelope held six sheets of folded legal cap,
some of which contained the score of a pinochle game, played after
office hours on Saturday afternoon between the managing clerk and the
process-server.

Feldman put the envelope in his pocket and retired to a remote corner of
the room. There he examined the contents of the envelope and, knitting
his brows into an impressive frown, he took from the well-stocked
shelves that lined the walls book after book of digests and reports.
Occasionally he made notes on the back of the envelope, and after the
space of half an hour he returned to his chair and prepared to deliver
himself of a weighty opinion.

"In the first place," he said, "this man Grossman ain't incompetent in
his work, is he?"

"Incompetent!" Abe exclaimed. "Oh, no, he ain't incompetent. He's
competent enough to sue us for five thousand dollars after we fire him,
if that's what you mean."

"Then I take it that you don't want to discharge him for incompetence
and risk a law suit," Mr. Feldman went on. "Now, before we go on, how
much does his share of your profits amount to each week?"

"About thirty dollars in the busy season," Abe replied.

"Then here's your scheme," said Feldman. "You go to Grossman and say:
'Look a-here, Grossman, this business of figuring out profits each week
is a troublesome piece of bookkeeping. Suppose we call your share of the
profits forty dollars a week and let it go at that.' D'ye suppose
Grossman would take it?"

"Would a cat eat liver?" said Abe.

"Well, then," Feldman now concluded, "after Grossman accepts the offer,
and you pay him the first installment of forty dollars you're
substituting a new weekly contract in place of the old yearly one, and
you can fire Grossman just as soon as you have a mind to."

"But suppose he sues me, anyhow?" said Abe.

"If he does," Feldman replied. "I won't charge you a cent; otherwise
it'll be two hundred and fifty dollars."

He touched the bell in token of dismissal.

"This fellow, Grossman, is certainly a big money-maker," he said to
himself, after Abe