Page:The Winning Touchdown.djvu/43

Rh needed the money or because he could afford better furniture.

"No, that's not the kind we want," said Tom, whose eyes were roving about the cluttered-up shop. He and his chums had decided on the course of pretending to want to buy a chair, with the idea that if Komsky had taken theirs, by hook or crook, he would be more apt to show it if he saw prospective customers, than if he knew they had come demanding their rights. "We want an easier chair," went on Tom.

"Oh, an easier vun? Den I haf it. See!" and he brought to light a big Turkish rocker, that was in the last stages of decay.

Meanwhile Sid and Phil had been strolling about, leaving Tom to engage Komsky in conversation. The two looked in many corners, and peered under heaps of furniture, but they did not see their chair. Nor, if the dealer had it, did he show any desire to produce it. Tom looked at rocker after rocker that was brought out, and at last, convinced that his method was likely to prove a failure, he boldly stated the case, and demanded to know, whether by mistake or otherwise, the dealer had taken their old relic.

The surprise of Mr. Komsky was pitiful to observe. He all but tore out his beard, and called upon his ancestors as far back as the sixteenth generation to witness that he had not even seen