is the motto of the I. O. M. A., Sammet?" Finkman thundered.
"'Justice, Fraternity and Charity!' And I say to you now that, as
chairman of this meeting, as well as Past National Grand Master of that
noble order to which you and I both belong, _verstehst du_, I will see
that justice be done, fraternity be encouraged and charity dispensed on
each and every occasion.

"Now, my brothers, here is a fellow member of our organization in
distress, y'understand; and I ask you one and all this question"--he
raised his voice to a pitch that made the filaments tremble in the
electric-light bulbs--"Who," he roared, "who will come to his
assistance?"

He paused dramatically just as Sam, the office boy, stuck his head in
the showroom doorway and rent the silence with his high, piping voice.

"Mr. Lubliner," he said, "the man is here about Jacobowitz."

Elkan flapped his hand wildly, but it was too late to prevent the
entrance of no less a person than Jacob Paul--the connoisseur of
antiques and fine arts.

"Hello, Finkman!" he said; "what's the trouble here?"

Elkan started from his seat to interrupt his visitor, but there was
something in Finkman's manner that made him sit down again.

"Why, how do you do, Mr. Paul?" Finkman exclaimed; and the clarion note
had deserted his voice, leaving only a slight hoarseness to mark its
passing. "What brings you here?"

"I might ask the same of you, Finkman," Jacob Paul replied; and as his
keen eyes scanned the assembled company they rested for a minute on Leon
Sammet, who forthwith began to perspire.

"The fact is," Finkman began, "this here is a meeting of creditors of
Louis Dishkes, of the Villy dee Paris Store on Amsterdam Avenue."

Paul turned to Louis Dishkes, proprietor of the Ville de Paris Store,
who sat at the side of the room behind Scheikowitz's desk in an
improvised prisoner's dock.

"What's the matter, Dishkes?" Paul asked. "Couldn't you make it go up
there?"

Dishkes shrugged hopelessly.

"Next month, when them houses round the corner is rented," he said, "I
could do a good business there."

"You ought to," Paul agreed. "You ain't got no competitors, so far as I
could see."

"That's what we all think!" Elkan broke in--"that is to say, all of us
except Mr. Sammet; and he ain't willing to wait for his money."

Leon Sammet moved uneasily in his chair as Jacob Paul faced about in his
direction.

"Why ain't you willing to wait, Sammet?" he asked; and Leon mopped his