Then for a moment Frank thought the pawnshop man was going to have a fit, a fit of large and dreadful proportions, right on the premises. His eyes bulged; he choked and gurgled. It was really awful, and Frank could not help wishing himself home again, watch and all. Even with the coveted sum so close within reach, he was sick of the whole thing.
Presently the pawnshop man came to himself a little.
He leaned across the counter and said softly, "Would you please say that again?"
"Six hundred dollars," repeated Frank.
"Say," said the man, leaning confidentially toward the boy, "what a joker you are! That's good enough for vaudeville, I'll say! Well, we've laughed enough at that, ain't we? And I feel so funny about it that I will give you a good price for the watch. What do you guess it is?" He leaned closer. "Twenty-five dollars."
"Twenty-five dollars!" gasped Frank. "Why, my grandfather paid 'most a thousand dollars for it!"
"Sure, I don't doubt it; and so did George Washington have a watch bigger than this that cost a lot of money but I would not give more than twenty-five dollars for either one of 'em."
"I can't take that," said Frank, looking so shocked and disappointed that the man knew that he would end by accepting.
"Twenty-five is as high as I can go," said the man. "We got to pertect ourselves."