Part 34 (1/2)

Morris nodded, and this time Abe hung up his hat and sat down heavily in the nearest chair.

”Who says he's going to fail?” he asked.

”Everybody says so,” Morris replied; ”even in the papers they got it.”

He handed Kleiman's paper to Abe and indicated the paragraph with a shaking forefinger.

”Where does it say he is going to fail?” Abe asked after he had read it over hastily.

”Where does it say it?” Morris cried. ”Why, if a feller goes to work and pays three thousand dollars for a fiddle, Abe, while he only got a business rated twenty-five to thirty thousand, credit fair, ain't it as plain as the nose on your face he must got to fail?”

Once more Abe read over the paragraph and then the paper fell from his hands to the floor.

”Why, Mawruss,” he gasped, ”it says here he is paying three thousand dollars for an Amati which he had in his possession for some time. That must be the very fiddle which he is playing on with Moe Rabiner.”

”My _tzuris_ if it is _oder_ it ain't,” Morris commented. ”What difference does that make to us, Abe?”

Abe's face was white and large beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead as he replied.

”The difference ain't much, Mawruss,” he said slowly. ”Only if Felix Geigermann pays three thousand for the fiddle which he already got it and we are giving him for nothing another fiddle, which is the selfsame, identical article, Mawruss, then we are out three thousand dollars--and that's all the difference it makes to us!”

For two minutes Morris regarded his partner with a gla.s.sy stare.

”Do you mean to told me, Abe, that that there fiddle which you bought it from Sh.e.l.lak is the same identical article like Geigermann pays three thousand dollars for?”

Abe nodded.

”You couldn't tell the difference between 'em, Mawruss,” he declared.

”Even inside the label is the same--the same name and everything.”

Morris took off his hat and coat methodically and hung them up on the rack.

”So, Abe,” he commenced, ”you are giving to a _Schnorrer_ like Geigermann a genu-ine who's-this violin, which it is worth three thousand dollars!”

”How should I know it is worth three thousand?” Abe said.

”Everybody knows that one of them genu-ine feller's violins is worth three thousand dollars,” Morris thundered. ”I'm surprised to hear you, you should talk that way.”

”Sh.e.l.lak didn't know it for one,” Abe interrupted, ”otherwise why should he sell to us for a hundred and twenty-five dollars a fiddle worth three thousand dollars?”

”What should a greenhorn like Sh.e.l.lak know about such things?” Morris said.

”Don't you fool yourself, Mawruss. If Sh.e.l.lak finds out he is getting a hundred and twenty-five for a fiddle worth three thousand, he's got gumption enough to sue us in the courts yet, and don't you forget it.”

”Why should he sue us, Abe?” Morris asked. ”A bargain is a bargain, ain't it?”

”Sure I know, Mawruss; but I told the feller the fiddle wasn't genu-ine, y'understand, when all the time I knew it was genu-ine.”