guess he
ain't sold 'em yet. If he can't sell a stock from gold and silver
already, Abe, what show do we stand with a stock from copper?"

"That Sheitlis stock is only a small item, Mawruss."

"Well, maybe it is," Morris admitted, "but just you ring up and ask him.
Then, if we find that he sold that gold and silver stock we take a
chance on the copper."

Abe hastened to the telephone in the rear of the store.

"Listen, Abe," Morris called after him, "tell him it should be no dating
or discount, strictly net cash."

In less than a minute, Abe was conversing with Fiedler.

"Mr. Fiedler!" he said. "Hello, Mr. Fiedler! Is this you? Yes. Well, me
and Mawruss is about decided to buy a thousand of them stocks what you
showed me down at your store--at your office yesterday, only, Mawruss
says, why should we buy them goods--them stocks if you ain't sold that
other stocks already. First, he says, you should sell them stocks from
gold and silver, Mr. Fiedler, and then we buy them copper ones."

Mr. Fiedler, at the other end of the 'phone, hesitated before replying.
The Texas-Nevada Gold and Silver Mining Corporation was a paper mine
that had long since faded from the memory of every bucketshop manager he
knew, and its stock was worth absolutely nothing. Yet Gunst & Baumer, as
the promoters of Interstate Copper, would clear at least two thousand
dollars by the sale of the stock to Abe and Morris; hence, Fiedler took
a gambler's chance.

"Why, Mr. Potash," he said, "a boy is already on the way to your store
with a check for that very stock. I sold it for three hundred dollars
and I sent you a check for two hundred and seventy-five dollars.
Twenty-five dollars is our usual charge for selling a hundred shares of
stock that ain't quoted on the curb."

"Much obliged, Mr. Fiedler," Abe said. "I'll be down there with a check
for twenty-five hundred."

"All right," Mr. Fiedler replied. "I'll go ahead and buy the stock for
your account."

"Well," Abe said, "don't do that until I come down. I got to fix it up
with my partner first, Mr. Fiedler, and just as soon as I can get there
I'll bring you the check."

Twenty minutes after Abe had rung off a messenger arrived with a check
for two hundred and seventy-five dollars, and Morris included it in the
morning deposits which he was about to send over to the Kosciusko Bank.

"While you're doing that, Mawruss," Abe said, "you might as well draw a
check for twenty-five hundred dollar