Geigermann takes the fiddle and him and Moe Rabiner gets together
by the pianner and for three quarters of an hour, Mawruss, they work
away like they was being paid for it."

"Moe Rabiner gets paid for it, I bet yer," Morris agreed.

"What a noise them fellers make it, Mawruss!" Abe continued. "Honestly,
I thought my head was busting; and when they get finished the lady which
done the hollering asks 'em who the piece is by, Mawruss--and who do you
think Rabiner says?"

"How should I know who he says?" Morris retorted angrily.

"Richard Strauss," Abe replied.

"Richard Strauss?" Morris asked. "You mean that feller Strauss of
Klipmann, Strauss & Bleimer, I suppose?"

"It must be the same feller," Abe said. "Seemingly everybody there knows
him; and besides, Mawruss, that feller Strauss is another one of them
musical fellers too. Only the other day Klipmann tells me that feller
spends a fortune going on the opera with customers."

"But I thought Klipmann's partner was called Milton Strauss," Morris
said.

"Maybe it was Milton Strauss," Abe continued. "Milton _oder_ Richard, I
couldn't remember. It was one of them up-to-date names anyhow; and, mind
you, Mawruss, that feller Rabiner has got the nerve to ask me if I
didn't like Strauss. What could I say? If that cut-throat Rabiner thinks
he is going to get me to knock a competitor in front of Geigermann he's
mistaken. 'Sure I like him,' I says; 'why not?' 'In that case,' Moe
says, 'we'll play some more of this.' 'Go as far as you like,' I says,
and they kept it up till the elevator boy rings the bell and says a lady
on the top floor is sick. I don't blame her, Mawruss; I was pretty sick
myself."

Morris nodded sympathetically.

"So, then, Mawruss," Abe continued, "Geigermann takes the fiddle again
and shows it to us, Mawruss; and he says on the back is a ruby varnish."

"Rubies is pretty high now, Abe," Morris said; "carat for carat, rubies
is a whole lot more expensive as diamonds."

"_Gewiss_, Mawruss," Abe cried; "but I seen the back of the fiddle,
Mawruss, and if the varnish on it was made from rubies, Mawruss, I would
eat it. The fiddle was an ordinary fiddle like any other fiddle; only
one thing I see, Mawruss--on the inside is a little piece from paper,
y'understand, and printed on it is the name from some Italiener or
another, with some figures on it. Geigermann says it was stuck in there
three hundred years ago, when the fiddle was made. And you ought to