“It is better that we should not offend them.”
“Just as you say, brother.”
“I say it. Yes. We shall be wise to turn to them a pleasing face.”
“Sure. The best thing to do for a while is to stall along,” nodded Skidder, “––but always be ready for a chance to hand it to them. That’s safest; wait till we get the goods on them. Then slam it to ’em plenty!”
“If they annoy me too much,” purred Puma, displaying every dazzling tooth, “it may not be so agreeable 204 for them. I am bad man to crowd.... Meanwhile–––”
“Sure; we’ll stall along, Angy!”
They opened the glass door and went out into the studio. And Puma began again on his favourite theme, the acquiring of Broadway property and the erection of a cinema theatre. And Skidder, with his limited imagination of a cross-roads storekeeper, listened cautiously, yet always conscious of agreeable thrills whenever the subject was mentioned.
And, although he knew that capital was shy and that conditions were not favourable, his thoughts always reverted to a man he might be willing to go into such a scheme with––the president of the Shadow Hill Trust Company, Alonzo Pawling.
At that very moment, too, it chanced that Mr. Pawling’s business had brought him to New York––in fact, his business was partly with Palla Dumont, and they were now lunching together at the Ritz.