"Well, Mr. Ersten," he cheerfully observed, "I've come round to make
you an offer for that lease."

Mr. Ersten, his gnarled eyebrows bent upon the sacred ceremony about
to be performed, looked up with a grunt--and immediately returned to
his business. Mr. Kurzerhosen glanced round for an instant in
frowning appeal. Mr. Schoppenvoll paid no attention whatever to the
interruption. He gave an exhibition of cork-pulling which a
watchmaker might have envied for its delicacy; he poured the tall
glasses half-full of the clear amber fluid and opened the bottles of
Glanzen Wasser. The three friends, Schoppenvoll now sitting, clinked
their steins solemnly and emptied them. Ersten wiped the foam from
his bristling gray mustache.

"About that lease I have nothing to say," he told Johnny, fixing a
stern eye upon him. "I will not sell it."

The other gentlemen of the party looked upon the stranger as an
unforgivable interloper.

"I'm prepared to make you a very good offer for it," insisted
Johnny. "I have a better location for you, not half a block away,
and I've taken an option on a long-time lease for it."

The stolid boy removed the steins. The three gentlemen poured the
Glanzen Wasser into their wine.

"I will not sell the lease," announced Ersten with such calm
finality that Johnny apologized for the intrusion and withdrew. As
he went out, Ersten and Kurzerhosen and Schoppenvoll, in blissful