"I am just looking," answered the stranger, vacantly. "Oh, well--just to see if I can see anything of benefit that I might carry off."
Then off he went, mozying through the congested aisles, with that vacuous stare about him that is a.s.sumed, usually, by a Jehue in a vaudeville show. Eli followed him, very closely, watching very sharply, being suspicious all the time that he might pick up a stray pin and carry it off without just compensation to his close-fisted master. The stranger strayed on, in and out, in and out, among the junkage, till he came at last to the cubby-hole, eyed through at that moment by old Peter.
Arriving at the entrance of Peter"s sanctuary, the stranger stopped, looked about him listlessly, and took hold of the latch of the door, pressed his thumb slowly upon it, opened it, and walked within, without invitation, or concern as to who might be the occupant therein--bear or man.
"Good morning," said Peter, eyeing him suspiciously. "What do you want?"
"Well, sir," answered the stranger, "I just stepped in a moment to see if you could supply me with a kit of tools."
"This is my office, sir; my office," said Peter, cross as a she-bear.
"Why didn"t you ask my clerk, sir; my clerk?"--now rubbing his hands briskly and leering at the stranger. "He will supply your wants, maybe, sir, if he has what you want."
"I always deal with the proprietor of an establishment," remarked the stranger, seating himself. "No harm in that, I reckon, sir?"
"None," returned Peter, with a growl. "None, sir."
"Then, do you have a kit of burglar tools?" asked the stranger, with a suavity of an oily-tongued vender of patent medicine.
Peter looked him over again more critically, eyed him more suspiciously, growled out an unintelligible word or two, and sat down himself in a corner, but in such a position that he still could keep one eye on his loophole of observance.
"No, sir!" deliberately groaned out Peter, "I never carry such articles by choice."
"Then by chance, perhaps?" questioned the stranger.
"Nor by chance, if I can help it," screeched the crusty Peter. "I am an honest dealer in my wares."
"I presume so," returned the stranger, with his eyes roaming about the four bare walls of the cubby-hole, as if he were unwinding his thoughts preparatory to a plunge into the secrets of something hidden within his breast.
"You doubt my word, sir?" said Peter, on his dignity.
"Your veracity, I presume," calmly remarked the stranger, "is equal to the rest of men in business."
"It is, sir," answered Peter, foaming.
"Well, if you have not got what I want, I must leave your place without it," said the stranger, with a nonchalance that caused Peter to squint one of his little eyes up like a question mark.
"I am a fair dealer in all things, I am, sir," retorted Peter, "and I don"t like for strangers coming about here and eyeing as if I was in league with criminals, or any other such disreputables."
"That"s all right, stranger," replied the stranger, with mollifying effectiveness. "This being a junk shop, I took it to be no more than natural to find here such tools as I have indicated."
Peter rubbed his dirty hands together for a moment, gave an avaricious curl to his under lip, squinted his porcine eyes, and asked:
"What do you propose doing with them tools?"
Then he suddenly turned his head, with a grin of malice on his countenance, and looked through his peephole at Eli, whom he saw at that moment parlying with a forlorn creature of the feminine gender. After gazing thereat for a moment, he turned to the stranger to receive an answer to his question.
"Nothing, any more than that I want them," answered the stranger, carelessly.
"That is not a satisfactory answer," said Peter, again turning to his peephole, from which place he could not now unrivet his eyes.
"That"s my only answer," replied the stranger. "Your name is Peter Dieman, is it not?"
Peter quickly unriveted his eyes, and looked up with astonishment at the peculiar tone in the stranger"s voice, and the sharp look in his steel-gray eyes.
"It is my name," growled Peter.
"I knew it was--judging by the sign over the door," said the stranger.
"Then why in the devil do you ask such a foolish question, if you knew it?" said Peter, ferociously.
"Because, I wanted to make sure," said the stranger. "Say, Mr. Dieman,"
he now asked, "do you know Ford & Ford, who are after the contract for repaving 444th street with wood blocks?"
"I do."
"Do you know Councilman Biff?"
"I do."
"You know all the other councilmen?"
"I do."
"Very well. Do you know the chief clerk?"
"I do."
"How many can you buy?"
Peter eyed him again, growled again, again peeped out of his place of espial at Eli and the forlorn creature still parlying, rubbed his hands, ran his greasy fingers through his thin setting of hair, coughed, sneezed, looked out the peephole, screwed his mouth to one side, hem-hawed, then snorted:
"Who do you represent?"
"Ford & Ford. Here is my pa.s.sport to you," replied the stranger, handing Peter a typewritten sheet of paper signed by a member of that firm.
"Why, in the devil, didn"t you make yourself known in the beginning?"
"Oh, I just wanted to lead you up to the question."
"What do they want?"
"They want the contract."
"Have they got the money?"
"They have."
"It will cost you--"