Abe stopped short and shook the sticky hand of the bill-poster.
"How d'ye do, Mr. Feinstein?" he said.
"Ah, good morning, Mr. Potash," Feinstein cried in his employer's best tone and manner.
"What's the matter? Is Rifkin in trouble?"
"Oh, no," Feinstein replied ironically. "Rifkin ain't in trouble; his creditors is in trouble, Mr. Potash. The Federal Textile Company, ten thousand four hundred and eighty-two dollars; Miller, Field & Simpson, three thousand dollars; the Kosciusko Bank, two thousand and fifty."
Abe whistled his astonishment.
"I always thought he done it such a fine business," he commented.
"Sure he done it a fine business," the law clerk said. "I should say he did done it a fine business. If he got away with a cent he got away with fifty thousand dollars."
"Don't nobody know where he skipped to?"
"Only his wife," Feinstein replied, "and she left home yesterday. Some says she went to Canada and some says to Mexico; but they mostly goes to Brooklyn, and who in blazes could find her there?"
Abe nodded solemnly.
"But come inside and give a look around," Feinstein said hospitably. "Maybe there's something you would like to buy at the receiver's sale next week."
Abe handed Feinstein a cigar, and together they went into Rifkin's loft.
"He's got some fine fixtures, ain't it?" Abe said as he gazed upon the mahogany and plate-glass furnishings of Rifkin's office.
"Sure he has," Feinstein replied nonchalantly, scratching a parlor match on the veneered shelf under the cashier's window. The first attempt missed fire, and again he drew a match across the lower part of the partition, leaving a great scar on its polished surface.
"Ain't you afraid you spoil them fixtures?" Abe asked.
"They wouldn't bring nothing at the receiver's sale, anyhow," Feinstein replied, "even though they are pretty near new."
"They must have cost him a pretty big sum, ain't it?" Abe said.
"They didn't cost him a cent," Feinstein answered, "because he ain't paid a cent for 'em. Flaum & Bingler sold 'em to him, and they're one of the petitioning creditors. Twenty-one hundred dollars they got stung for, and they ain't got no chattel mortgage nor nothing. Look at them racks there and all them mirrors and tables! Good enough for asaloon. I bet yer them green baize doors, what he put inside the regular door, is worth pretty near a hundred dollars."
Abe nodded again.
"And I bet the whole shooting-match don't fetch five hundred dollars at the receiver's sale," Feinstein said.
"Why, I'd give that much for it myself," Abe cried.
Feinstein puffed away at his cigar for a minute.
"Do you honestly mean you'd like to buy them fixtures?" he said at last.
"Sure I'd like to buy them," Abe replied. "When is the receiver's sale going to be?"
"Next week, right after the order of adjudication is signed. But that won't do you no good. The dealers would bid 'em up on you, and you wouldn't stand no show at all. What you want to do is to buy 'em from the receiver at private sale."
"So?" Abe commented. "Well, how would I go about that?"
Feinstein pulled his hat over his eyes and, resting his cigar on the top of Rifkin's desk with the lighted end next to the wood, he drew Abe toward the rear of the office.
"Leave that to me," he said mysteriously. "Of course, you couldn't expect to get them fixtures much under six hundred dollars at private sale, because it's got to be done under the direction of the court; but for fifty dollars I could undertake to letyou in on 'em for, say, five hundred and seventy-five dollars. How's that?"
Abe puffed at his cigar before replying.
"I got to see it my partner first," he said.
"That's all right, too," Feinstein rejoined; "but there was one dealer in here this morning already. As soon as the rest of 'em get on to this here failure they'll be buzzing around them fixtures like flies in a meat market, and maybe I won't be able to put it through for you at all."
"I tell you what I'll do," Abe said. "I'll go right down to the store and I'll be back here at two o'clock."
"You've got to hustle if you want them fixtures," he said.
"I bet yer I got to hustle," Abe said, his eyes fixed on the marred surface of the desk, "for if you're going to smoke many more cigars around here them fixtures won't be no more good to nobody."
"That don't harm 'em none," Feinstein replied. "A cabinetmaker could fix that up with a piece of putty and some shellac so as you wouldn't know it from new."
"But if I buy it them fixtures," Abe concluded, as he turned toward the door, "I'd as lief have 'em without putty, if it's all the same to you."
"Sure," Feinstein replied, and no sooner had Abe disappeared into the hall than he drew a morning paper from his pocket and settled down to his duties as keeper for the Federal receiver by selecting themost comfortable chair in the room and cocking up his feet against the side of Rifkin's desk.
"Well, Abe," Morris cried as his partner entered the store half an hour later, "I give you right."
"You give me right?" Abe repeated. "What d'ye mean?"
"About them fixtures," Morris explained. "I give you right. Them fixtures is nothing but junk, and we got to get some new ones."
"Sure we got to get some new ones, Mawruss," Abe agreed, "and I seen it the very thing what we want up at H. Rifkin's place."
"H. Rifkin's place," Morris exclaimed.
"That's what I said," Abe replied. "I got an idee, Mawruss, we should buy them fixtures what H. Rifkin got."
"Is that so?" Morris retorted. "Well, why should we buy it fixtures what H. Rifkin throws out?"
"He don't throw 'em out, Mawruss," Abe said. "He ain't got no more use for 'em, Mawruss. He busted up this morning."
"You can't make me feel bad by telling me that, Abe," Morris rejoined. "A sucker what takes from us a good customer like Henry Feigenbaum should of busted up long since already. But that ain't the point, Abe. If we're going to get it fixtures, we don't want no second-hand articles."
"They ain't no second-hand articles, Mawruss," Abe explained. "They're pretty near brand-new,and I got a particular reason why we should buy them fixtures, Mawruss."
He paused for some expression of curiosity from his partner, but Mawruss merely pursed his lips and looked bored.
"Yes, Mawruss," Abe went on, "I got it a particular reason why we should buy them fixtures, Mawruss. You see, this here Rifkin got it the loft right upstairs one flight from us, Mawruss, and naturally he's got it lots of out-of-town trade what don't know he's busted yet, Mawruss."
"No?" Morris vouchsafed.
"So these here out-of-town customers comes up to see Rifkin. They gets in the elevator and they says 'Sixth,' see? And the elevator man thinks they says 'Fifth,' and he lets 'em off at our floor because there ain't nobody on the sixth floor. Well, Mawruss, we leave our store door open, and the customer sees Rifkin's fixtures inside, so he walks in and thinks he's in Rifkin's place. Before he finds out he ain't, Mawruss, we sell him a bill of goods ourselves."
Morris stared at Abe in silent contempt.
"Of course, Mawruss," Abe went on, "I'm only saying they might do this, y'understand, and certainly it would only be for the first week or so what we are there, ain't it? But if we should only get it one or two customers that way, Mawruss, them fixtures would pay for themselves."
"Dreams you got it, Abe," Morris cried. "You think them customers would be blind, Abe? Ain'tthey got eyes in their head? Since when would they mistake a back number like you for an up-to-date feller like Rifkin, Abe?"
"Maybe I am a back number, Mawruss," Abe replied, "but I know a bargain when I see it. Them fixtures is practically this season's goods already. Why, H. Rifkin ain't even paid for them yet."
"There ain't no seasons in fixtures, Abe," Morris replied, "and besides, a feller like Rifkin could have it fixtures for ten years without paying for 'em. He could get 'em on the installment plan and give back a chattel mortgage, Abe. You couldn't tell me nothing about fixtures, Abe, because I know all about it."
"You don't seem to know much about it this morning when I spoke to you, Mawruss," Abe retorted.
"Sure not," Morris said, "but I learned it a whole lot since. I got to thinking it over after you left. So I rings up a feller by the name Flachsman, what is corresponding secretary in the District Grand Lodge of the Independent Order Mattai Aaron, which I belong it. This here Flachsman got a fixture business over on West Broadway."
Abe nodded. He lit a fresh cigar to sustain himself against impending bad news.
"And this here Flachsman comes around here half an hour ago and shows me pictures from fixtures, Abe; and he got it such elegant fixtures like a bank or a saloon, which he could put it in for us for two thousand dollars."
"Two thousand dollars!" Abe cried.
"Well, twenty-two fifty," Morris amended. "Comes to about the same with cash discount. Flachsman tells me he seen the kind of loft we got and knows it also the measurements; so I think to myself what's the use waiting. Abe wants it we should buy the fixtures, and we ain't got no time to lose. So I signed the contract."
Abe sat down heavily in the nearest chair and pushed his hat back from his forehead.
"Yes, Mawruss," he said bitterly, "that's the way it goes when a feller's got a partner what is changeable like Paris fashions. You are all plain one minute, and the next you are all soutache and buttons. This morning you wouldn't buy no fixtures, not if you could get 'em for nix, and a couple hours later you throw it away two thousand dollars in the streets."
Morris glared indignantly at his partner.
"You are the changeable one, Abe," he cried, "not me. This morning old fixtures to you is junk. Ain't it? You got to have new fixtures and that's all there is to it. But now, Abe, new fixtures is poison to you, and you got to have second-hand fixtures. What's the matter with you, anyway, Abe?"
"I told it you a dozen times already, Mawruss," Abe replied, "them ain't no exactly second-hand fixtures what Rifkin got it. Them fixtures is like new—fine mahogany partitions and plated glass."
"That's what we bought it, Abe," Morris said, "fine mahogany partitions with plated glass. If youwouldn't jump so much over me, I would of told you about it."
Abe shrugged despairingly.
"Go ahead," he said. "I ain't jumping over you."
"Well, in the first place, Abe," Morris went on, "there's a couple of swinging doors inside the hall door."
"Just like Rifkin's," Abe interrupted.
"Better as Rifkin's," Morris exclaimed. "Them doors is covered with goods, Abe, and holes in each door with glass into it."
"Sure, I know," Abe replied. "Rifkin's doors got green cashmere onto 'em like a pool table."
"Only new, not second-hand," Morris added. "Then, when you get through them doors, on the left side is the office with mahogany partitions and plated glass, with a hole into it like a bank already."
"Sure! The same what I seen it up at Rifkin's, Mawruss," Abe broke in again.
Morris drew himself up and scowled at Abe.
"How many times should I tell it you, Abe," he cried, "them fixtures what Flachsman sells it us is new, and not like Rifkin's."
"Go ahead, Mawruss," Abe replied. "Let's hear it."
"Over the hole is a sign, Cashier," Morris continued.
Abe was about to nod again, but at a warning glance from Morris he thought better of it.
"But I told it Flachsman we ain't got no cashier,only a bookkeeper," Morris said, "and so he says he could put it Bookkeeper over the hole. Inside the office is two desks, one for you and me, and a high one for the bookkeeper behind the hole. On the right-hand side as you go inside them pool-table doors is another mahogany partition, and back of that is the cutting-room already. Then you walk right straight ahead, and between them two partitions is like a hall-way, what leads to the front of the loft, and there is the show-room with showcases, racks and tables like what I got it a list here."
"And the whole business will cost it us two thousand dollars, Mawruss," Abe commented.
"Two thousand two hundred and fifty," Morris said.
"Well, all I got to say is we would get it the positively same identical thing by H. Rifkin's place for six hundred dollars," Abe concluded.
He rose to his feet and took off his hat and coat.
"What did you say this here feller Flachsman was in the district lodge of the I. O. M. A., Mawruss?" he inquired.
"Corresponding secretary," Morris replied. "What for you ask, Abe?"
"Oh, nothing," Abe replied as he turned away. "Only, I was wondering what he would soak us for them fixtures, Mawruss, if he would of been Grand Master."
Ten days afterward the receiver in bankruptcy sold Rifkin's stock and fixtures at auction, and whenAbe and Morris took possession of their new business premises on the first of the following month the topic of H. Rifkin's failure had ceased to be of interest to the cloak and suit trade. Morris alone harped upon it.
"Well, Abe," he said for the twentieth time, gazing proudly around him, "what's the matter with them fixtures what we got it? Huh? Ain't them fixtures got H. Rifkin skinned to death?"
Abe shook his head solemnly.
"Mind you, Mawruss," he began, "I ain't saying them fixtures what we got it ain't good fixtures, y'understand; but they ain't one, two, six with H. Rifkin's fixtures."
"That's what you say, Abe," Morris retorted, "but Flachsman says different. I seen him at the lodge last night, and he tells me them fixtures what H. Rifkin got it was second quality, Abe. Flachsman says they wouldn't of stood being took down and put up again. He says he wouldn't sell them fixtures as second-hand to an East Broadway concern, without being afraid for a comeback."
"Flachsman don't know what he's talking about," Abe declared hotly. "Them fixtures was A Number One. I never seen nothing like 'em before or since."
"Bluffs you are making it, Abe," Morris replied. "You seen them fixtures for ten minutes, maybe, Abe, and in such a short time you couldn't tell nothing at all about 'em."
"Couldn't I, Mawruss?" Abe said. "Well, themfixtures was the kind what you wouldn't forget it if you seen 'em for only five minutes. I bet yer I would know them anywhere, Mawruss, if I seen them again, and what we got it here from Flachsman is a weak imitation, Mawruss. That's all."
At this juncture a customer entered, and for half an hour Morris busied himself displaying the line. In the meantime Abe went out to lunch, and when he entered the building on his return a familiar, bulky figure preceded him into the doorway.
"Hallo!" Abe cried, and the bulky figure stopped and turned around.
"Hallo yourself!" he said.
"You don't know me, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe went on.
"Why, how d'ye do, Mr. Potash?" Feigenbaum exclaimed. "What brings you way uptown here?"
"We m——" Abe commenced—"that is to say, I come up here to see a party. I bet yer we're going to the same place, Mr. Feigenbaum."
"Maybe," Mr. Feigenbaum grunted.
"Sixth floor, hey?" Abe cried jocularly, slapping Mr. Feigenbaum on the shoulder.
Mr. Feigenbaum's right eye assumed the glassy stare which was permanent in his left.
"What business is that from yours, Potash?" he asked.
"Excuse me, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe said with less jocularity, "I didn't mean it no harm."
Together they entered the elevator, and Abecreated a diversion by handing Mr. Feigenbaum a large, black cigar with a wide red-and-gold band on it. While Feigenbaum was murmuring his thanks the elevator man stopped the car at the fifth floor.
"Here we are!" Abe cried, and hustled out of the elevator ahead of Mr. Feigenbaum. He opened the outer door of Potash & Perlmutter's loft with such rapidity that there was no time for Feigenbaum to decipher the sign on its ground-glass panel, and the next moment they stood before the green-baize swinging doors.
"After you, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe said. He followed his late customer up the passageway between the mahogany partitions, into the show-room.
"Take a chair, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe cried, dragging forward a comfortable, padded seat, into which Feigenbaum sank with a sigh.
"I wish we could get it furniture like this up in Bridgetown," Feigenbaum said. "A one-horse place like Bridgetown you can't get nothing there. Everything you got to come to New York for. We are dead ones in Bridgetown. We don't know nothing and we don't learn nothing."
"That's right, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe said. "You got to come to New York to get the latest wrinkles about everything."
With one comprehensive motion he drew forward a chair for himself and waved a warning to Morris, who ducked behind a rack of cloaks in the rear of the show-room.
"You make yourself to home here, Potash, I must say," Feigenbaum observed.
Abe grunted inarticulately and handed a match to Feigenbaum, who lit his cigar, a fine imported one, and blew out great clouds of smoke with every evidence of appreciative enjoyment.
"Where's Rifkin?" he inquired between puffs.
Abe shook his head and smiled.
"You got to ask me something easier than that, Mr. Feigenbaum," he murmured.
"What d'ye mean?" Feigenbaum cried, jumping to his feet.
"Ain't you heard it yet?" Abe asked.
"I ain't heard nothing," Feigenbaum exclaimed.
"Then sit down and I'll tell you all about it," Abe said.
Feigenbaum sat down again.
"You mean to tell me you ain't heard it nothing about Rifkin?" Abe went on.
"Do me the favor, Potash, and spit it out," Feigenbaum broke in impatiently.
"Well, Rifkin run away," Abe announced.
"Run away!"
"That's what I said," Abe went on. "He made it a big failure and skipped to the old country."
"You don't tell me!" Feigenbaum said. "Why, I used to buy it all my goods from Rifkin."
Abe leaned forward and placed his hand on Feigenbaum's knees.
"I know it," he murmured, "and oncet you usedto buy it all your goods from us, Mr. Feigenbaum. I assure you, Mr. Feigenbaum, I don't want to make no bluffs nor nothing, but believe me, the line of garments what we carry and the line of garments what H. Rifkin carried, there ain't no comparison. Merchandise what H. Rifkin got in his place as leaders already, I wouldn't give 'em junk room."
Mr. Feigenbaum nodded.
"Well, the fixtures what you was carrying at one time, Potash, I wouldn't give 'em junk room neither," Feigenbaum declared. "You're lucky I didn't sue you in the courts yet for busting my nose against that high rack of yours. I ain't never recovered from that accident what I had in your place, Potash. I got it catarrh yet, I assure you."
"Accidents could happen with the best regulations, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe cried, "and you see that here we got it a fine new line of fixtures."
"Not so good as what Rifkin carried," Feigenbaum said.
"Rifkin carried fine fixtures, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe admitted, "but not so fine as what we got. We got it everything up to date. You couldn't bump your nose here, not if you was to get down on your hands and knees and try."
"I wouldn't do it," Mr. Feigenbaum said solemnly.
"Sure not," Abe agreed. "But come and look around our loft. We just moved in here, and everything we got it is new—fixtures and garments as well."
"I guess you must excuse me. I ain't got much time to spare," Mr. Feigenbaum declared. "I got to get along and buy my stuff."
Abe sprang to his feet.
"Buy it here!" he cried. He seized Feigenbaum by the arm and propelled him over to the sample line of skirts, behind which Morris cowered.
"Look at them goods," Abe said. "One or two of them styles would be leaders for H. Rifkin. For us, all them different styles is our ordinary line."
In turn, he displayed the rest of the firm's line and exercised his faculties of persuasion, argument and flattery to such good purpose that in less than an hour Feigenbaum had bought three thousand dollars' worth of garments, deliveries to be made within ten days.
"And now, Mr. Feigenbaum," Abe said, "I want you to look around our place. Mawruss is in the office, and he would be delighted, I know, to see you."
He conducted his rediscovered customer to the office, where Morris was seated at the roll-top mahogany desk.
"Ah, Mr. Feigenbaum," Morris cried, effusively seizing the newcomer by both hands, "ain't it a pleasure to see you again! Take a seat."
He thrust Feigenbaum into the revolving chair that he had just vacated, and took the box of gilt-edge customers' cigars out of the safe.
"Throw away that butt and take a fresh cigar," he exclaimed, handing Feigenbaum a satiny Invinciblewith the broad band of the best Havana maker on it. Feigenbaum received it with a smile, for he was now completely thawed out.
"You got a fine place here, Mawruss," he said. "Fixtures and everything A Number One, just like Rifkin's."
"Better as Rifkin's," Morris declared.
"Well, maybe it is better in quality," Feigenbaum admitted; "but, I mean, in arrangement and color it is just the same. Why, when I come in here with Abe, an hour ago, I assure you I thought I was in Rifkin's old place. In fact, I could almost swear this desk is the same desk what Rifkin had it."
He rose to his feet and passed his hand over the top of the desk with the touch of a connoisseur.
"No," he said at last. "It ain't the same as Rifkin's. Rifkin's desk was a fine piece of Costa Rica mahogany without a flaw. I used to be in the furniture business oncet, you know, Mawruss, and so I can tell."
Abe flashed a triumphant grin on Morris, who frowned in reply.
"But ain't this here desk that—now—what-yer-call-it mahogany, too, Mr. Feigenbaum?" Morris asked.
"Well, it's Costa Rica mahogany, all right," Feigenbaum said, "but it's got a flaw into it."
"A flaw?" Morris and Abe exclaimed with one voice.
Look At Them Goods
"Sure," Mr. Feigenbaum continued. "It looks tome like somebody laid a cigar on to it and burned a hole there. Then some cabinetmaker fixed it up yet with colored putty and shellac. Nobody would notice nothing except an expert like me, though."
Feigenbaum looked at Morris' glum countenance with secret enjoyment, but when he turned to Abe he was startled into an exclamation, for Abe's face was ashen and large beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead.
"What's the matter, Abe?" Feigenbaum cried. "Are you sick?"
"My stummick," Abe murmured. "I'll be all right in a minute!"
Feigenbaum took his hat and coat preparatory to leaving.
"Well, boys," he said genially, "you got to excuse me. I must be moving on."
"Wait just a minute," Abe said. "I want you to look at something."
He led Feigenbaum out of the office and down the passageway between the mahogany partitions. In front of the little cashier's window Abe stopped and pointed to the shelf and panel beneath.
"Mr. Feigenbaum," he said in shaking tones, "do you see something down there?"
Mr. Feigenbaum examined the woodwork closely.
"Yes, Abe," he answered. "I see it that some loafer has been striking matches on it, but it's been all fixed up so that you wouldn't notice nothing."
"S'enough," Abe cried. "I'm much obliged to you."
In silence Abe and Morris ushered Mr. Feigenbaum to the outer door, and as soon as it closed behind him the two partners faced each other.
"What difference does it make, Abe?" Morris said. "A little hole and a little scratch don't amount to nothing."
Abe gulped once or twice before he could enunciate.
"It don't amount to nothing, Mawruss," he croaked. "Oh, no, it don't amount to nothing, but sixteen hundred and fifty dollars."
"What d'ye mean?" Morris exclaimed.
"I mean this," Abe thundered: "I mean, we paid twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars for what we could of bought for six hundred dollars. Them fixtures what we bought it from Flachsman, he bought it from Rifkin's bankruptcy sale. I mean that these here fixtures are the positively same identical fixtures what I seen it upstairs in H. Rifkin's loft."
It was now Morris' turn to change color, and his face assumed a sickly hue of green.
"How do you know that?" he gasped.
"Because I was in Rifkin's old place when that lowlife Feinstein, what works for Henry D. Feldman, had charge of it after the failure; and I seen Feinstein strike them matches and put his seegar on the top from the desk."
He led the way back to the office and once more examined the flaw in the mahogany.
"Yes, Mawruss," he said, "two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars we got to pay it for this here junk. Twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars, Mawruss, you throw it into the street for damaged, second-hand stuff what ain't worth two hundred."
"Why, you say it yourself you wanted to pay six hundred for it, Abe," Morris protested, "and you said it was first-class, A Number One fixtures."
"Me, Mawruss!" Abe exclaimed. "I'm surprised to hear you should talk that way, Mawruss. I knew all the time that them fixtures was bum stuff. I only wanted to buy 'em because I thought that they would bring us some of Rifkin's old customers, Mawruss, and I was right."
"You're always right, Abe," Morris retorted. "Maybe you was right when you said Feinstein made them marks, Abe, and maybe you wasn't. Feinstein ain't the only one what scratches matches and smokes seegars, Abe. You smoke, too, Abe."
"All right, Mawruss," Abe said. "I scratched them matches and burnt that hole, if you think so; but just the same, Mawruss, if I did or if I didn't, Ike Flachsman done us, anyhow."
"How d'ye know that, Abe?" Morris blurted out. "I don't believe them fixtures is Rifkin's fixtures at all, and I don't believe that Flachsman bought 'em at Rifkin's sale. What's more, Abe, I'm going to getFeinstein on the 'phone right away and find out who did buy 'em."
He went to the telephone immediately and rang up Henry D. Feldman's office.
"Hallo, Mr. Feinstein," he said, after the connection had been made. "This is Mawruss Perlmutter, of Potash & Perlmutter. You know them fixtures what H. Rifkin had it?"
"I sure do," Feinstein replied.
"Well, who bought it them fixtures at the receiver's sale?"
"I got to look it up," Feinstein said. "Hold the wire for a minute."
A moment later he returned to the 'phone.
"Hallo, Mr. Perlmutter," he said. "They sold for three hundred dollars to a dealer by the name Isaac Flachsman."
"Say, looky here, Abe," Morris cried one rainy March morning, "we got to get some more insurance."
"What do you mean, insurance?" Abe asked. "We got enough insurance, Mawruss. Them Rifkin fixtures ain't so valuable as all that, Mawruss, and even if we wouldn't already got it for twenty thousand dollars insurance, Mawruss, the building is anyhow fireproof. In a fireproof building you don't got to have so much insurance."
"Is that so?" Morris replied. "Well, Pinkel Brothers' building where they got it a loft is fireproof, and they got it also oitermatic sprinklers, Abe, and they somehow get burned out anyhow."
"You couldn't prove to me nothing by Pinkel Brothers, Mawruss," Abe rejoined. "Them people has already got a hundred operators and we ain't got one, Mawruss, and every operator smokes yet a cigarettel, and you know what them cigarettels is, Mawruss. They practically smokes themselves. So, if an operator throws one of them cigarettels in a bin from clippings, Mawruss, that cigarettel would burn up them clippings certain sure. For my part, I wouldn't have a cigarettel in the place; and so, Mawruss, we wouldn't have no fire, neither."
"I know, Abe," Morris protested; "but the loft upstairs is vacant and the loft downstairs is vacant, and everybody ain't so grouchy about cigarettels like you are, Abe. Might one of them lofts would be taken by a feller what is already a cigarettel fiend, Abe. And fires can start by other causes, too; and then where would we be with our twenty thousand insurance and all them piece goods what we got it?"
"But the building is fireproof, Mawruss."
"Sure I know," Morris replied; "fireproof buildings is like them gilt-edge, A Number One concerns what you sell goods to for ten years, maybe, and then all of a sudden when you don't expect it one of 'em busts up on you. And that's the way it is with fireproofbuildings, Abe. They're fireproof so long as nobody has a fire in 'em."
Abe shrugged his shoulders and lit a fresh cigar.
"All right, Mawruss," Abe said; "I'm satisfied. If you want to get some more insurance, go ahead. I got worry enough I should bother my head about trifles. A little money for insurance we can afford to spend it, Mawruss, so long as we practically throw it in the streets otherwise."
"Otherwise?" Morris repeated. "What do you mean we throw it away otherwise, Abe?"
"I mean that new style thirty-twenty-eight what you showed it me this morning, Mawruss," Abe replied. "For a popular-price line, Mawruss, them new capes has got enough buttons and soutache on to 'em to sell for twenty dollars already instead of twelve-fifty."
"That's where you talk without knowing nothing what you say, Abe," Morris replied. "That garment what you seen it is the winder sample what I made it up for Louis Feinholz's uptown store. Louis give me a big order while you was in Boston last week, a special line of capes what I got up for him to retail at eighteen-fifty. But he also wanted me to make up for him a winder sample, just one garment to hang in the winder what would look like them special capes, Abe, y'understand, something like a diamond looks like a rhinestone. Then, when a lady sees that cape in the winder, she wants to buy one just like it, so she goes into Louis' store and they show her one justlike it, only three inches shorter, a yard less goods into it, about half the soutache on to it and a dozen buttons short, Abe; because that winder garment what we make for Louis costs us ourselves twenty-five dollars, and Louis retails the garment what he sells that lady for eighteen-fifty. And that's the way it goes."
"That's a fine crook, that Louis Feinholz," Abe cried virtuously. "I wonder that you would sell people like that goods at all, Mawruss. That feller ain't no good, Mawruss. I seen him go back three times on four hundred hands up at Max Geigerman's house last week, a dollar a hundred double-double. He's a gambler, too."
"Well, Abe," Morris answered, "a feller what runs a chance on auction pinochle ain't near the gambler like a feller what is willing to run a chance on his business burning out and don't carry no insurance, Abe."
"Who is willing to run a chance, Mawruss?" Abe cried. "Just to show you I ain't willing to run a chance I will go right down to J. Blaustein and take out a ten-thousand-dollar policy, Mawruss."
Morris colored slightly.
"Why should we give it Blaustein all our business, Abe?" he said. "That feller must got it a thousand customers to Rudy Feinholz's one."
"Whose one?" Abe asked.
"Rudy Feinholz's," said Morris. "I thought I told it you that Louis Feinholz's nephew got an insurancebusiness on Lenox Avenue, and I promised Louis I would give the young feller a show."
"You promised you would give him a show, Mawruss?" Abe repeated. "You promised Louis you would give that kid nephew of his what used to run Louis' books a show?"
"That's what I said, Abe," Morris answered.
"Well, all I can say, Mawruss," Abe declared as he put on his hat, "is that I wouldn't insure it a pinch of snuff by that feller, Mawruss. So if you take out any policies from him you can pay for 'em yourself, Mawruss, because I won't."
He favored Morris with a final glare and banged the door behind him.
Two hours later when Abe reëntered the show-room his face was flushed with triumph and he smoked one of J. Blaustein's imported cigars.
"You see, Mawruss," he said, flourishing a folded policy, "when you deal with fellers like Blaustein it goes quick. I got it here a ten-thousand-dollar insurance by a first-class, A Number One company."
Morris seized the policy and spread it out on the table. For ten minutes he examined it closely and then handed it back in silence.
"Well, Mawruss," Abe inquired anxiously, "ain't that policy all right?"
Morris shook his head.
"In the first place, Abe," he said, "why should we insure it a loft on Nineteenth Street, New York, in the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire InsuranceCompany, of Manchester, England? Are we English or are we American, Abe?"
This was a poser, and Abe remained silent.
"And then again, Abe," Morris went on, "supposing we should—maybe, I am only saying—have a fire, Abe, then we must got to go all the way to Manchester, England, already to collect our money. Ain't it?"
Abe stared at his feet and made no reply, while Morris again examined the folded policy.
"Just listen here to these here names of the people what run the company, Abe," he said. "Chairman, the rutt honn Earl of Warrington."
Abe looked up suddenly.
"What kind of Chinese talk is that, Mawruss?" he said. "Rutt honn?"
"That's no Chinese talk, Abe," Morris replied. "That's printed right here on the policy. That rutt honn Earl of Warrington is president of the board of directors, Abe; and supposing we should maybe for example have a fire, Abe, what show would we stand it with this here rutt honn Earl of Warrington?"
Abe grabbed the policy, which bore on its reverse side the list of directors headed by the name of that distinguished statesman and Cabinet minister, the Rt. Hon. Earl of Warrington.
"J. Blaustein would fix it for us," Abe replied.
"J. Blaustein," Morris jeered. "I suppose, Abe, him and the rutt honn Earl of Warrington drinkscoffee together every afternoon when J. Blaustein makes a trip to Manchester, England. Ain't it? No, Abe, you are up against a poor proposition, and I hope you ain't paid for that policy, Abe."
"J. Blaustein ain't in no hurry," Abe said. "We never pay him inside of sixty days, anyway."
"Well, we ain't going to pay him for that policy inside of sixty days or six hundred and sixty days, neither, Abe. We're going to fire that policy back on him, Abe, because I got it here a policy for ten thousand dollars which Rudy Feinholz just brought it me, Abe, and we are insured in a good American company, Abe, the Farmers and Ranchers' Insurance Company, of Arizona."
Abe shrugged his shoulders.
"Why should we insure it a stock of cloaks and suits by farmers and ranchers, Mawruss?" he asked.
"Ain't it better we should insure our goods by farmers and ranchers as by somebody what we don't know what he does for a living, like the rutt honn Earl of Warrington?" Morris retorted.
"But when it comes right down to it, Mawruss," Abe said, "how are we better off, supposing we got to go all the way to Arizona to collect our money?"
"That's what I told it young Feinholz," Morris replied, "and he says supposing we should, so to speak, have a fire, he guarantees it we would collect our money every cent of it right here in New York. And anyhow, Abe, any objections what you got tothis here Farmers and Ranchers' policy wouldn't be no use anyhow."
"No?" Abe said. "Why not?"
"Because I just sent it Rudy Feinholz a check for the premium," Morris said, and walked out of the show-room before Abe could enunciate all the profanity that rose to his lips.
Louis Feinholz's order was shipped the following week, and with it went the cape for his show window. Abe himself superintended the packing, for business was dull in the firm's show-room. A particularly warm March had given way to a frigid, rainy April, and now that the promise of an early spring had failed of fulfillment cancelations were coming in thick and fast. Hence, Abe took rather a pessimistic view of things.
"I bet yer Feinholz will have yet some kicks about them goods, Mawruss," he said. "When I come down Feinholz's street this morning, Mawruss, it looked like Johnstown after the flood. I bet yer Feinholz ain't making enough in that store just now to pay electric-light bills."
"I don't know about that, Abe," said Morris. "Louis carries a mighty attractive line in his winders. Them small Fifth Avenue stores ain't got nothing on him when it comes to the line of sample garments he carries in his show winders, Abe."
"Sure I know," Abe rejoined; "but he ain't got nothing on one of them piker stores when it comes right down to the stock he carries on the inside,Mawruss. Yes, Mawruss, when I sell goods to a feller like Feinholz, Mawruss, I'm afraid for my life until I get my money."
"Well, you needn't be afraid for Feinholz, Abe," said Morris, "because, in the first place, the feller has got a fine rating; and then again, he couldn't fire them goods back on us because, for the price, there ain't a better-made line in the country."
"I hope you're right, Mawruss," Abe replied as he rang the bell for the freight elevator. "It would be a fine comeback if he should return them goods on us after we give his nephew the insurance we did."
Again he pressed the elevator bell.
"What's the matter with that elevator, Mawruss?" he said. "It takes a year to get a package on to the sidewalk."
"That's on account of somebody moves in downstairs, Abe," Morris answered. "Kaskel Schwartz, what used to be foreman for Pinkel Brothers, him and Moe Feigel goes as partners together in skirts."
"Is that so?" Abe said, jamming his thumb on the elevator bell. "I hope he don't got the cigarettel habit."
At length the elevator arrived, and Jake, the shipping clerk, carried out the brown paper parcels comprising Feinholz's shipment.
"If that's the last I seen of them garments," Abe said as he returned to the show-room, "I'm a lucky man."
"Always you're beefing about something happening what ain't going to happen, Abe," Morris retorted. "Just a few minutes since you hoped Kaskel Schwartz ain't going to be careless about cigarettels, and now you're imagining things about Feinholz sending back the goods."
"Never mind, Mawruss," Abe replied; "in two days' time I shall breathe easier yet."
For the rest of the day it rained in a steady, tropical downpour, and when Abe came downtown the next morning the weather had moderated only slightly.
"Yes, Mawruss," he said as he entered, "that's a fine weather for a cloak business, Mawruss; and I bet yer, Mawruss, if we was making cravenettes and umbrellas yet we would be having a long dry spell."
He heaved a great sigh and approached the bookkeeper's desk, where Morris had laid the morning mail.
"Did you hear from those suckers out in Kansas City what made the kick about them London Smokes, Mawruss?" he asked.
"Sure I did," Morris replied; "they says they decided to keep the goods."
"I guess it left off raining in Kansas City," Abe commented. "Them suckers only made that kick because they thought they couldn't sell nothing in wet weather. Any other kicks, Mawruss?"
"Yes," Morris replied shortly.
Abe looked up.
"Louis Feinholz!" he gasped.
Morris nodded and handed Abe a letter. It read as follows: