"You dirty dawg!" he began, when a tall, slender person bumped 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."