Amati?"

"Listen here to me, Louis," Emil declared; "if I wouldn't be sure that
it was genu-ine why should I got such a heart that I would act that way
to that feller Potash? When--so sure as you are standing there,
Louis--when I told him it was a genu-ine Amati he pretty near got a fit
already; and as for his partner by the name Perlmutter, he hollered so I
thought he was going to spit blood already."

Louis licked his dry lips before making any reply.

"So, then, I am paying fifteen dollars for a fiddle which it is a
genu-ine Amati," he said, "and that brother of mine which he ain't got
no more sense as a lunatic lets it go for a song already."

"Well, I couldn't stop to talk to you now, Louis," Emil said. "I must
got to get on the job. I am going to be to-morrow morning, ten o'clock,
at this here Potash & Perlmutter's, and if you want to you could meet me
there with old man Hubai."

"Old man Hubai!" Louis cried. "What's he got to do with it?"

"He's got a whole lot to do with it, Louis," Emil said. "A feller like
him sells you a three-thousand-dollar violin for fifteen dollars which
he ain't got a penny in the world, y'understand, and I should stand by
and see him get done!"

Professor Wcelak hung his head and blushed.

"Also, Louis," Emil concluded, "I just rung him up at the café, and he