“Somebody’s been telling,” surmised Lofty.  “The worst of it is, we own the original lease.  Father covered the entire block, in fact.”

Johnny’s thorough knowledge of New York business conditions enabled him to make another good conjecture.

“Your firm has made money too fast,” he remarked.  “Your father hoped to build in twenty years, and you need to build in seven.”

“He provided much better than that,” returned Lofty in quick defense of his father’s acumen.  “He only allowed ten-year leases; but the one occupied by Ersten came to him with a twenty-year life on it.  We’ve bought off all the other tenants, at startlingly extravagant figures in some cases; but Ersten won’t listen.”

“Did you rattle your keys?” inquired Johnny, much interested.

“As loudly as possible,” returned Lofty, smiling.  “I went up three steps at a time until I had offered him a hundred thousand; then I quit.  Money wouldn’t buy him.”

“Then you can’t build,” innocently remarked Constance.

Willis Lofty immediately displayed his real age in his eyes and his jaws.

“I’ll tear down the top part of his building and put a tunnel around him if necessary,” he asserted.

“You won’t like that any better than Ersten,” commented Johnny.  “I think I’ll have to make another guess for you.”

“I like your work,” replied Lofty with a smile.  “Let’s hear it.”

“All right.  I guess I’ll buy Ersten’s lease for you.”

“You’ll have to find another answer, I’m afraid,” Lofty hopelessly stated.  “I’ve had a regiment of real estate men helping me devil Ersten to death, but he won’t sell.”

“Of course he’ll sell,” declared Johnny confidently.  “You can buy anything in New York if you go at it right.  Each deal is like a Chinese puzzle.  You never do it twice alike.”

“Try this one,” urged Lofty.  “There’s a good commission in it.”

“Commission?  Not for Johnny!” promptly refused that young man; “I’ll buy it myself, and hold you up for it.”

“If you come at me too strongly I’ll build that tunnel,” warned Lofty.

“I’ll figure it just below tunnel prices,” Johnny laughingly assured him.  The gray shawl with the pink relief came up just then, and all four of them immediately bought it for Johnny’s sole surviving mother.

CHAPTER XIV

IN WHICH JOHNNY TRIES TO MIX BUSINESS WITH SKAT

Louis Ersten, who puffed redly wherever he did not grayly bristle, met Johnny Gamble half-way.  Johnny’s half consisted in stating that he had come to see Mr. Ersten in reference to his lease.  Mr. Ersten’s half consisted in flatly declining to discuss that subject on the premises.

“Here—­I make ladies’ suits,” he explained.  “If you come about such a business, with good recommendations from my customers, I talk with you.  Otherwise not.”