n, however, and he
laughed aloud.

"You don't understand them people up in Cyprus, Mawruss," he said.
"Strangers they don't like at all; and even me, though I lived in that
town ten years, most of 'em wouldn't buy goods off of me because Van
Buskirk and Patterson is born and raised in that town and they dealt
with 'em ever since they was boys together. So you see I got ten years'
start of that feller from Sarahcuse, Mawruss. If I could get some feller
which he knows the garment business to go as partners together with me,
and to put a little money into the store, we could yet do a good
business there."

"How much money would you got to have?" Morris asked.

"Two thousand dollars, anyhow," Sam replied.

Morris tapped the table with his right index finger and frowned
reflectively.

"The necktie pin alone must be worth a thousand dollars," he murmured
almost to himself, "and two rings he got it which I know about must
stand him in anyhow a thousand dollars more."

He thrust back his chair and rose to his feet.

"All right, Sam," he said aloud. "You got a little egg on your chin.
Wipe it off and we'll go back to the store. I got an idee."

* * * * *

"On second thought, Sam," Morris said as they approached Potash &
Perlmutter's place of business, "I wouldn't go up with me if I was you
on account I don't want to say nothing to my partner just yet a while.
Where are you staying, Sam?"

"I got a room at a hotel over on Third Avenue," Sam replied.

"Third Avenue!" Morris exclaimed. "That's a _Nachbarschaft_ for a
business man!"

He handed Sam a five-dollar bill.

"Go and get yourself a room over at the Prince Clarence," Morris said.
"I'll be over there presently."

Nathan, the shipping clerk, was alone in the showroom when Morris
entered.

"Ain't my partner come back yet, Nathan?" he demanded.

Nathan shook his head.

"Then tell him when he does come back that I've went up to the Prince
Clarence to see a customer," Morris continued; "and if he asks what name
tell him it's a new concern just starting."

Five minutes later he visited the business premises of Kleiman &
Elenbogen, impelled thereto by a process of reasoning which involved the
following points: Klinger & Klein manufactured a medium-price line and
so did Kleiman & Elenbogen. Klinger & Klein's leader was The Girl in the
Airship Gown, a title suggested by the syndicate's popular musical
comedy of that name, while K