"'All right, Boss, I wouldn't argue with you,' Bernstorff says, 'because them amounts represent only the preliminary lunches which I give this here Bolo. Further down you would see where he gets the real big money, and then I'll explain.'
"'Well, explain this,' the old man says. 'Here under date July second, nineteen sixteen, it stand an item:
To blowing up munitions plant $10,000
Who did you get to do it? Caruso?'
"'You couldn't blow up a munitions plant and make a first-class job of it under ten thousand dollars, Boss,' Bernstorff says.
"'Is that so?' the Kaiser tells him. 'Well, let me tell you something, Bernstorff. I've got a pretty good line on what them munitions explosions ought to cost. My eldest boy has been blowing up buildings in France for over three years now, and for what it costs to blow up a factory he could blow up two cathedrals and a château.'
"'Have it your own way, Boss,' Bernstorff says, 'but them château buildings is so old that they're pretty near falling down, anyway.'
"'Don't give me no arguments,' the Kaiser says. 'I suppose you're going to tell me these here
was some Saturday specials you picked up in a bargain basement. What was they filled with, rubies?'