"'Who is this Cecala?' inquired a short man of ruddy complexion and stout face.
"'Why, don't you know him?' I asked. 'He gave me this address where I was to come and buy groceries.'
"'Have you inquired in the bank downstairs?'
"I went down to the bank of one De Luca and found a barrel containing groceries addressed to Luigi Cosentino. This I had brought to my rooms in Thompson Street.
"'You must pay sixty cents,' said the banker, 'right away.' And Cecala paid the money for me.
"Going upstairs again Cecala said in the presence of Giglio and Sylvester:
"'Don Antonio, we must continue the work. Not in that place (the stone house), but in another farm that has been rented by Giglio and that is very far from Highland. We will not work any more with the same press because it is not very good as to impression. We must buy a new press, which Calichio is negotiating for now, a new model.'
"'I will not come again,' I replied, 'because I have found work as a compositor and I am to go to work to-morrow.'
"'Don't begin to make trouble. You know all our secrets now and we can't let you go.'
"'But why don't you let Calichio continue the work?'
"'Calichio is no good at the press. You know of what he is capable.'
"'Listen, Don Antonio, I promise you that you will not work much. Print at least the other ten-thousand sheets of paper for two-dollar notes and the work will be completed. Then we will suspend operations for the summer, and will begin again in the Fall.'
"'Mr. Cecala, I will return to print the paper that is left, but you must give me, at the beginning of August, $400 because I want to return to Italy; then I will come back to New York in November. Are you satisfied?'
"'Have no doubts as to that. By the first two weeks of August I will give you $500 and not $400, because by that time I will have sold all the money. But will you return to America?'
"'Yes, because I am going to Italy only to arrange family affairs.'
"Calichio now arrived and said that he had found the party who wanted to sell the press, and he suggested that I go and see the man. At this juncture Giglio interrupted to say that the press, which we had been using, had been broken up and thrown into the woods on the farm that had just been rented in his name for the new location of the plant.