Two weeks sped quickly by, during which Morris safeguarded the diamonds with the utmost zest and enjoyment, and at length the settling day arrived.  Morris was superintending the unpacking of piece goods in the cutting-room when Abe darted upstairs.

“Mawruss,” he hissed, “Hymie Kotzen is downstairs.”

By a feat of legerdemain that a conjurer might have envied, Morris transferred the pin and ring to his waistcoat pocket and followed Abe to the show-room.

“Well, Hymie,” Morris cried, “we thought you would be prompt on the day.  Ain’t it?”

Hymie smiled a sickly smirk in which there was as little mirth as there was friendliness.

“You got another think coming,” Hymie replied.

“What d’ye mean?” Morris exclaimed.

“I’m up against it, boys,” Hymie explained.  “I expected to get it a check for two thousand from Heller, Blumenkrohn this morning.”

“And didn’t it come?” Abe asked.

“Sure it come,” Hymie replied, “but it was only sixteen hundred and twenty dollars.  They claim it three hundred and eighty dollars for shortage in delivery, so I returned ’em the check.”

“You returned ’em the check, Hymie?” Morris cried.  “And we got to wait for our thousand dollars because you made it a shortage in delivery.”

“I didn’t make no shortage in delivery,” Hymie declared.

“Well, Hymie,” Abe broke in, “you say it yourself Heller, Blumenkrohn is gilt-edge, A Number One people.  They ain’t going to claim no shortage if there wasn’t none, Hymie.”

“I guess you don’t know Louis Blumenkrohn, Abe,” Hymie retorted.  “He claims it shortage before he unpacks the goods already.”

“Well, what has that got to do with us, Hymie?” Morris burst out.

“You see how it is, boys,” Hymie explained; “so I got to ask it you a couple of weeks’ extension.”

“A couple of weeks’ extension is nix, Hymie,” Abe said, and Morris nodded his head in approval.

“Either you give it us the thousand, Hymie,” was Morris’ ultimatum, “or either we keep the diamonds, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Now, Mawruss,” Hymie protested, “you ain’t going to shut down on me like that!  Make it two weeks more and I’ll give you a hundred dollars bonus and interest at six per cent.”

Abe shook his head.  “No, Hymie,” he said firmly, “we ain’t no loan sharks.  If you got to get that thousand dollars to-day you will manage it somehow.  So that’s the way it stands.  We keep open here till six o’clock, Hymie, and the diamonds will be waiting for you as soon so you bring us the thousand dollars.  That’s all.”

There was a note of finality in Abe’s tones that made Hymie put on his hat and leave without another word.

“Yes, Abe,” Morris commented as the door closed behind Hymie, “so liberal you must be with my money.  Ain’t I told you from the very start that feller is a lowlife?  Tchampanyer he must drink it on his wife’s birthday, Abe, and also he got to wear it diamonds, Abe, when he ain’t got enough money to pay his laundry bill yet.”