The man was dizzy with surprise, and Ike said:
“You let him go on with his trick. He can’t come the trick of making three dollars out of me, or work upon the sympathies of this audience to make good his three dollars.”
The proprietor had been a witness of the affair. He had been standing in the front. He went round to the stage and appeared just in time to call the man off. The latter made a bow to the audience, and amidst a shower of hisses left the stage, and our hero regained his seat in the audience.
Lulu, who had been greatly excited, inquired:
“Did he really accuse you falsely, Ike?”
“You saw what occurred,” was all that our hero answered. He was satisfied; the man whom he had made a show of once kicked him without cause. Our hero recollected the kick and thus repaid it.
When the show was over Ike and Lulu returned home. On the following day Ike was busy. He was preparing the living receipt for the landlord when he called. At the appointed hour the man appeared and to his surprise at a table there sat the old magician, Andro.
“Well, what do you want,” in a gruff tone demanded the old necromancer.
The landlord stared in amazement.
“I’ve been told,” said the old man at the table, “that you claim I did not pay three months’ rent in advance.”