'em we would rather not be bothered with him."

"Did you have any other damages, boys?" Feder asked, with a solicitude
engendered of a ten-thousand-dollar accommodation to Potash &
Perlmutter's debit on the books of the Kosciusko Bank.

"Otherwise, everything is O. K.," Morris replied cheerfully. Together
they conducted Feder on a tour of their premises and, after he was
quite reassured, they presented him with a good cigar and ushered him
into the elevator.

"I guess you put your foot in it with Feinholz, Mawruss," Abe said after
Feder had departed. "How can we go to that kid nephew of his now and ask
him to adjust the loss, Mawruss?"

Morris arched his eyebrows and stared at his partner.

"What's the matter with you, anyway, Abe?" he asked. "Ain't J. Blaustein
good enough for you? Ain't J. Blaustein always done it our insurance
business up to now all O. K., Abe? And now that we got it our very first
fire, why should you want to throw Blaustein down?"

Abe put on his hat thoroughly abashed.

"I thought we got to get Rudy Feinholz to adjust it the loss," he said.
"Otherwise, I wouldn't of suggested it. But, anyway, I will go right
down to Blaustein and see what he says."

Morris jumped to his feet.

"Wait," he said; "I'll go with you."

Half an hour afterward Abe and Morris were seated in J. Blaustein's
office on Pine Street, recounting the details of the fire.

"How many garments was there?" Blaustein asked.

"Forty-eight, and we figured it up the loss at twelve-fifty apiece,"
Morris explained. "That's what we billed 'em to Feinholz for."

Blaustein frowned.

"But look a-here, Perlmutter," he said: "them insurance companies won't
pay you what you were going to sell them garments for. They'll only pay
you what they cost to make up. They'll figure it: so much cloth--say,
fifty dollars; so much trimmings--say, forty dollars; so much
labor--say, thirty dollars; and that's the way it goes."

"But how could we prove that to the company, Mr. Blaustein?" Abe
protested. "There ain't enough left of them garments to show even what
color they was."

Blaustein rose to his feet.

"Well, gentlemen," he said, "we'll discuss that later. The first thing
we must do is to go up and see young Feinholz. That Farmers and
Ranchers' Insurance Company is a pretty close corporation. Louis
Feinholz's brother out in Arizona is the president, and they got such a
board of directors that if they printed the names on the back of t