he seemed almost angry about it." 

 "That's the extent of his lease," guessed Johnny shrewdly. "They're trying to get it away from him." 

 "I wonder why," speculated Constance. 

 "It's as simple as spending money," Johnny announced. "Lofty intends building an extension." 

 "They won't tear down Ersten's shop," Polly confidently asserted. 

 "They'll move him in a wheelbarrow some night," Johnny prophesied. "If I could grab his lease I could play a few hours." 

 Both the girls laughed at him for that speech. 

 "You'll be gray before the thirty-first of May," warned Polly. 

 "It turns anybody gray to dig up a million," agreed Johnny. "It's a good guess, though, Polly. I counted seven new white ones this morning." 

 "That's a strange coincidence," commented Constance, with a secretly anxious glance at his hair. "You're just seven hours behind your schedule." 

 Johnny shook his head. 

 "That schedule goes round like an electric fan," he soberly declared. 

 "And there's no switch," Constance reminded him. 

 "Gresham," Johnny suggested with a smile. 

 Polly cast a sidelong glance at the pretty cousin into whose family she had been adopted. The subject of Gresham was a painful one; and Johnny felt his blundering bluntness keenly. 

 "There isn't any Gresham," laughingly asserted Polly. "There never was any Gresham. Let's go to Coney Island to-night." 

 Both Constance and Johnny gave Polly a silent but sincere vote of thanks. 

 Willis Lofty, who continued the progressive fortune of his father by prowling about the vast establishment with a microscopic eye, approached Polly with more than a 

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