On the day that the "governor's" remittance arrived--it came on the
fifteenth and the first of every month--Sam found a furniture van backed
up opposite Jack's studio street entrance. The gravity of the situation
instantly became apparent. The dealer had lost patience and had sent for
the picture; the van told the story. Had he not been sure of getting it
he would not have sent the van.
Sam went up three steps at a time and burst into Jack's studio. He found
its owner directing two men where to place an inlaid cabinet. It was a
large cabinet of ebony, elaborately carved and decorated, and the two
furniture men--judging from the way they were breathing--had had their
hands full in getting it up the three flights of stairs. Jack was
pushing back the easels and pictures to make room for it when Sam
entered. His first thought was for the unpaid-for picture.
"Monet gone, Jack?" he asked, glancing around the room hurriedly in his
anxiety to find it.
"Yea--last night. He came and took it away. Here," (this to the two men)
"shove it close to the wall," pointing to the cabinet. "There--now go
down and get the top, and look out you don't break those little drawers.
What's the matter with you, Samuel? You look as if somebody had walked
over your grave."
"And you had no trouble?"
"Trouble! What are you dilating about, Samuel? We never have any trouble
up here."
"Then it's because I've kept him quiet. I've been three times this week
and held him up--much as I could do to keep him from getting out
a warrant."
"Who?"
"Your one-eyed dealer, as you call him."
"My one-eyed dealer isn't worrying, Samuel. Look at this," and he pulled
out a receipted bill. "His name, isn't it? 'Received in full payment--Six
hundred dollars.' Seems odd, Samuel, doesn't it?"
"Did your governor send the money?"
"Did my governor send the money! My governor isn't so obliging.
Here--don't stand there with your eyes hanging out on your cheeks; look
on this--found it yesterday at Sighfor's. Isn't it a stunner? bottom
modern except the feet, but the top is Sixteenth Century. See the way
the tortoise-shell is worked in--lots of secret drawers, too, all
through it--going to keep my bills in one of 'em and lose the key. What
are you staring at, anyhow, Sam?"
"Well--but Jack--I don't see----"
"Of course you don't see! You think I robbed a bank or waylaid your
Moneybags. I did--took twelve hundred dollars out of his clothes in a
check on the spot--wrote it right there at that desk--for the Monet, and
sent it home to his Palazzo da Avenue. Then I took his dirty check,
indorsed it over to that one-eyed skinflint, got the balance in bills,
bought the cabinet for five hundred and eighty-two dollars cash--forgive
me, Samuel, but there was no other way--and here is just eighteen
dollars to the good"--and he pulled out some bank-notes--"or was before
I gave those two poor devils a dollar apiece for carrying up this
cabinet. To-night, Samuel--to-night--we will dine at the Waldorf."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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