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you,” he said. “But I’m afraid you’re in for a disappointment. Johnny left here the day before yesterday.”
    Turner looked disappointed. “He couldn’t hold out?”
    Peter shook his head. “Things were pretty bad. He went back to his old job.”
    “With Santos?” Turner asked.
    “Yes,” Peter answered. “You knew Johnny?”
    “We worked for Santos together. He’s a good kid. Too bad he couldn’t have held on for a few more days. Moving pictures would have pulled him out of the hole.”
    “In Rochester?” Peter laughed.
    Turner looked at him. “Why not? Rochester isn’t any different than any place else and moving pictures are the biggest thing in the entertainment field and getting bigger every day. Ever see them?”
    “No,” said Peter. “Never even heard about them until your man delivered the machine here yesterday.”
    Turner took a cigar out of his pocket, bit the end off it, and lighted it. He blew out a cloud of smoke and looked at Peter a moment before he spoke. “You look like a fair man to me, Mr. Kessler, so I’m going to make you a proposition. I guaranteed Johnny’s machine to my office. If I have to pull it back, I’m hooked for the freight and installation charges even if the machine is never used. That’s over a hundred dollars. You let me run a show for you tonight, and if you like it you open up and give it a try.”
    Peter shook his head. “Not me. I’m a hardware man. I don’t know nothing about moving pictures.”
    Turner persisted. “It doesn’t make any difference. It’s a new business. Just two years ago a man by the name of Fox opened a picture show without any experience and he’s doing all right. So did another man by the name of Laemmle. All you have to do is run the machine. People will pay to see the pictures. There’s good money in it. It’s the coming thing.”
    “Not for me,” Peter told him. “I got a good business. I don’t need any headaches.”
    “Look, Mr. Kessler,” Turner said, “it won’t cost you anything to see it. The projector’s here already. I got some cans of film outside and nothing better to do with my time. Let me run a show for you, and you can see for yourself what it’s like. And then if you don’t like it, I’ll pull the machine out.”
    Peter thought for a moment. He wanted to see the moving pictures. The few words the drayman had said to him the other day had excited his imagination. “All right,” he said, “I’ll look. But I’m not promising anything.”
    Turner smiled. He held his hand out to Peter again. “That’s what they all say until they see it. I’m telling you, Mr. Kessler, you may not know it but you’re in the picture business already.”
    Peter invited Mr. Turner to have supper with them. When he introduced Turner to Esther, she looked at him questioningly but didn’t say anything. He hastened to explain: “Mr. Turner is going to show us some moving pictures tonight.”
    After they had eaten, Turner excused himself, saying he had to go downstairs to set things up. Peter went along with him.
    As they walked into the penny arcade together, Turner looked around. “Too bad Johnny had to leave. This was just the thing he needed.”
    Then Peter told him why Johnny had left and about the note Johnny had written.
    Turner listened attentively while he worked, and when Peter had finished, he said: “Anyway, Mr. Kessler, you don’t have to worry about the money Johnny owes you. If he said he’d pay you, he will.”
    “Who’s worried about the money?” Peter asked. “We liked the kid. He almost seemed like one of the family by now.”
    Turner smiled. “That’s the way Johnny is. I remember when his folks were killed. Johnny was about ten years old then. Santos and I were discussing what to do with him. He had no other relatives, so he would have gone to an orphanage, but instead Santos decided to keep him. After a while Santos used to say Johnny seemed just like his own kid.”
    Turner finished