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 get
Feinstein 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."

CHAPTER XIII

"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