a hurt tone, "why, I'm going to tie a pink ribbon
to it and hang it on the what-not, of course. I'm surprised at
you. But while I'm out you just try to figure out what ginger-cake
potentate would be most likely to want to buy this work of art for
his private collection--just to keep it out of circulation."

The sunset was reddening the tops of the cocoanut palms when
Billy Keogh came back from Casa Morena. He nodded to the artist's
questioning gaze; and lay down on a cot with his hands under the back
of his head.

"I saw him. He paid the money like a little man. They didn't want to
let me in at first. I told 'em it was important. Yes, that president
man is on the plenty-able list. He's got a beautiful business system
about the way he uses his brains. All I had to do was to hold
up the photograph so he could see it, and name the price. He
just smiled, and walked over to a safe and got the cash. Twenty
one-thousand-dollar brand-new United States Treasury notes he laid
on the table, like I'd pay out a dollar and a quarter. Fine notes,
too--they crackled with a sound like burning the brush off a ten-acre
lot."

"Let's try the feel of one," said White, curiously. "I never saw a
thousand-dollar bill." Keogh did not immediately respond.

"Carry," he said, in an absent-minded way, "you think a heap of your
art, don't you?"

"More," said White, frankly, "than has been for the financial good of
myself and my friends."

"I thought you were a fool the other day," went on Keogh, quietly,
"and I'm not sure now that you wasn't. But if you was, so am I. I've
been in some funny deals, Carry, but I've always managed to scramble
fair, and match my brains and capital against the other fellow's. But
when it comes to--well, when you've got the other fellow cinched,
and the screws on him, and he's got to put up--why, it don't strike
me as being a man's game. They've got a name for it, you know;
it's--confound you, don't you understand? A fellow feels--it's
something like that blamed art of yours--he--well, I tore that
photograph up and laid the pieces on that stack of money and shoved
the whole business back across the table. 'Excuse me, Mr. Losada,'
I said, 'but I guess I've made a mistake in the price. You get the
photo for nothing.' Now, Carry, you get out the pencil, and we'll do
some more figuring. I'd like to save enough out of our capital for
you to have some fried sausages in your joint when you get back to
New York."