Part 55 (1/2)

”A fine diamond!” Daiches exclaimed. ”What d'ye mean?”

”I mean, if you wouldn't say nothing to Borrochson about them diamonds what I stuck it in my waistcoat pocket before he seen 'em, as soon as we close the deal I give you one. Because if you should say something to Borrochson, it would bust up the deal; and might he would sue me in the courts for the diamonds already.”

A shrewd glitter came into Daiches' eyes.

”That's where you make it a mistake, Mr. Wolfson,” he said. ”If you give it me the diamond now, Mr. Wolfson, I sure wouldn't say nothing to Borrochson about it, because I run it the risk of losing the diamond if I do. But if you wouldn't give it me the diamond till after the deal is closed, then you wouldn't need to give it me at all; y'understand?”

Wolfson stopped short in the middle of the sidewalk.

”You are a fine schwindler!” he said.

”Whether I am a schwindler or I ain't a schwindler, Mr. Wolfson, is got no effect on me,” Daiches replied stolidly; ”for otherwise, if I don't get it the diamond right this minute I will go back and tell it all about the diamonds to Borrochson.”

Wolfson clenched his right fist and grasped Daiches by the shoulder with his left hand.

”You dirty dawg!” he began, when a tall, slender person b.u.mped into him. The intruder was muttering to himself and his face was ghastly with an almost unnatural whiteness.

”Rubin!” Wolfson cried, and stared after the distracted Rubin who seemed to stagger as he half ran down the street.

”Leggo from my arm,” Daiches said, ”or I'll----”

Wolfson came to himself with a start. After all, Rubin would be around the next day to buy back his safe, and Wolfson argued that he might as well be rid of Daiches.

”All right, Daiches,” he said, ”I'll give you a diamond.”

He stopped under a lamppost and carefully placed the six diamonds in a little row on the flat of his hand between his second and third fingers. Then he selected the smallest of the six stones and handed it to Daiches.

”Take it and should you never have no luck so long as you wear it,” he grunted.

”Don't worry yourself about that, Mr. Wolfson,” Daiches said with a smile. ”I ain't going to wear it; I'm going to sell it to-morrow.”

He folded it into a piece of paper and placed it in his greasy wallet, out of which he extracted a card.

”Here is also my card, Mr. Wolfson,” he said with a smile. ”Any time you want some more work done by safes, let me know; that's all.”

When Borrochson and Wolfson met the next afternoon in the office of the latter's attorney, Henry D. Feldman, they wasted no courtesy on each other.

”Feldman has sent up and searched the Register's office for chattel mortgages and conditional bill-off-sales, and he don't find none,”

Wolfson announced. ”So everything is ready.”

”I'm glad to hear it,” Borrochson said. ”When I get into a piece of business with a bloodsucker like you, Wolfson, I am afraid for my life till I get through.”

”If I would be the kind of bloodsucker what you are, Borrochson,”

Wolfson retorted, ”I would be calling a decent, respectable man out of his name. What did I ever done to you, Borrochson?”

”You tried your best you should do me, Wolfson,” Borrochson replied.

”You judge me by what you would have done if you had been in my place, Borrochson,” Wolfson rejoined.

”Never mind,” Borrochson said. ”Now we will close the whole thing up, and I want it distinctively understood that there should be no comebacks, Wolfson. You seen it my stock and fixtures, also my safe?”