"You refuse, absolutely, to accept my check?" he quavered.
"I don't know you, Mr. Peck," Herman Joost replied simply.
"Where's your telephone?"
Mr. Joost led Peck to the telephone and the latter called up Mr. Skinner.
"Mr. Skinner," he announced, "this is all that is mortal of Bill Peck speaking. I've got the store open and for two thousand dollars--cash--I can buy the blue vase Mr. Ricks has set his heart upon."
"Oh, Peck, dear fellow," Mr. Skinner purred sympathetically. "Have you been all this time on that errand?"
"I have. And I'm going to stick on the job until I deliver the goods. For God's sake let me have two thousand dollars and bring it down to me at B. Cohen's Art Shop on Geary Street near Grant Avenue. I'm too utterly exhausted to go up after it."
"My dear Mr. Peck, I haven't two thousand dollars in my house. That is too great a sum of money to keep on hand."
"Well, then, come downtown, open up the office safe and get the money for me."
"Time lock on the office safe, Peck. Impossible."