"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