sly excited, he arrived once more at the
office,--and when Puma, who had just entered, had listened in sullen
consternation to his story, he received another amazing and most
unpleasant shock. For Puma told him flatly that the tenancy of the Red
Flag Club suited him; that no lease could be broken, except by mutual
consent of partners; and that he, Skidder, had had no business to go
to Sondheim with any such threat of eviction unless he had first
consulted his partner's wishes.

"Well, what--what--" stammered Skidder--"what the hell drag have those
guys got with you?"

"Why is it you talk foolish?" retorted Puma sharply. "Drag? Did
Sondheim say----"

"No! _I_ say it. I ask you what have those crazy nuts got on you that
you stand for all this rumpus?"

Puma's lustrous eyes, battered but still magnificent, fixed themselves
on Skidder.

"Go out," he said briefly to his stenographer. Then, when the girl had
gone, and the glass door closed behind her, he turned heavily and
gazed at Skidder some more. And, after a few moments' silence: "Go
on," he said. "What did Sondheim say about me?"

Skidder's small, shifty eyes were blinking furiously and his
essentially suspicious mind was also operating at full speed. When he
had calculated what to say he took the chance, and said:

"Sondheim gave me to understand that he's got such a hell of a pull
with you that I can't kick him out of my property. What do you know
about that, Angelo?"

"Go on," said Puma impatiently, "what else did he say about me?"

"Ain't I telling you?"

"Tell more."

Skidder had no more to tell, so he manufactured more.

"Well," he continued craftily, "I didn't exactly get what that kike
said." But his grin and his manner gave his words the lie, as he
intended they should. "Something about your being in dutch--" He
checked himself as Puma's black eyes lighted with a momentary glare.

"What? He tells you I am in with Germans!"

"Naw;--in dutch!"

Puma's sanguinary skin reddened; his puffy fingers fished for a cigar
in the pocket of his fancy waistcoat; he found one and lighted it, not
looking at his partner. Then he picked up the morning paper.

Skidder shrugged; stood up, pretending to yawn; started to open the
door.

"Elmer?"

"Yeh? What y'want?"

"I want to know exactly what Max Sondheim said to you about me."

"Well, you better go ask Sondheim."

"No. I ask you--my friend--my associate in business----"

"A fine associate!--when I