Then he looked up and for the first time saw his partner’s haggard face.

“Holy smokes!” he cried.  “They’re winder-glass.”

Morris shook his head.  “I wish they was,” he croaked.

“You wish they was!” Abe repeated in accents of amazement.  “What d’ye mean?”

“Somebody pinched ’em on me,” Morris replied.

“What!” Abe shouted.

“S-sh,” Morris hissed as the door opened.  It was Hymie Kotzen who entered.

“Well, boys,” he cried, “every cloud is silver-plated.  Ain’t it?  No sooner did I get back to my store than I get a letter from Henry D. Feldman that Cohen & Schondorf want to settle for forty cents cash.  On the head of that, mind you, in comes Rudolph Heller from Cincinnati, and when I tell him about the check what they sent it me he fixes it up on the spot.”

He beamed at Abe and Morris.

“So, bring out them diamonds, boys,” he concluded, “and we’ll settle up C. O. D.”

He pulled a roll of bills from his pocket and toyed with them, but neither Abe nor Morris stirred.

“What’s the hurry, Hymie?” Abe asked feebly.

“What’s the hurry, Abe!” Hymie repeated.  “Well, ain’t that a fine question for you to ask it of me!  Don’t sit there like a dummy, Abe.  Get the diamonds and we’ll fix it up.”

“But wouldn’t to-morrow do as well?” Morris asked.

Hymie sat back and eyed Morris suspiciously.

“What are you trying to do, Mawruss?” he asked.  “Make jokes with me?”

“I ain’t making no jokes, Hymie,” Morris replied.  “The fact is, Hymie, we got it the diamonds, now—­in our—­now—­safety-deposit box, and it ain’t convenient to get at it now.”

“Oh, it ain’t, ain’t it?” Hymie cried.  “Well, it’s got to be convenient; so, Abe, you get a move on you and go down to them safety-deposit vaults and fetch them.”

“Let Mawruss fetch ’em,” Abe replied wearily.  “The safety deposit is his idee, Hymie, not mine.”

Hymie turned to Morris.  “Go ahead, Mawruss,” he said, “you fetch ’em.”

“I was only stringing you, Hymie,” Morris croaked.  “We ain’t got ’em in no safety-deposit vault at all.”

“That settles it,” Hymie cried, jumping to his feet and jamming his hat down with both hands.

“Where you going, Hymie?” Abe called after him.

“For a policeman,” Hymie said.  “I want them diamonds and I’m going to have ’em, too.”

Morris ran to the store door and grabbed Hymie by the coattails.

“Wait a minute,” he yelled.  “Hymie, I’m surprised at you that you should act that way.”

Hymie stopped short.

“I ain’t acting, Mawruss,” he said.  “It’s you what’s acting.  All I want it is you should give me my ring and pin, and I am satisfied to pay you the thousand dollars.”

They returned to the show-room and once more sat down.

“I’ll tell you the truth, Hymie,” Morris said at last.  “I loaned them diamonds to somebody, and that’s the way it is.”