“You’ve got to hustle if you want them fixtures,” he said.

“I bet yer I got to hustle,” Abe said, his eyes fixed on the marred surface of the desk, “for if you’re going to smoke many more cigars around here them fixtures won’t be no more good to nobody.”

“That don’t harm ’em none,” Feinstein replied.  “A cabinetmaker could fix that up with a piece of putty and some shellac so as you wouldn’t know it from new.”

“But if I buy it them fixtures,” Abe concluded, as he turned toward the door, “I’d as lief have ’em without putty, if it’s all the same to you.”

“Sure,” Feinstein replied, and no sooner had Abe disappeared into the hall than he drew a morning paper from his pocket and settled down to his duties as keeper for the Federal receiver by selecting the most comfortable chair in the room and cocking up his feet against the side of Rifkin’s desk.

“Well, Abe,” Morris cried as his partner entered the store half an hour later, “I give you right.”

“You give me right?” Abe repeated.  “What d’ye mean?”

“About them fixtures,” Morris explained.  “I give you right.  Them fixtures is nothing but junk, and we got to get some new ones.”

“Sure we got to get some new ones, Mawruss,” Abe agreed, “and I seen it the very thing what we want up at H. Rifkin’s place.”

“H.  Rifkin’s place,” Morris exclaimed.

“That’s what I said,” Abe replied.  “I got an idee, Mawruss, we should buy them fixtures what H. Rifkin got.”

“Is that so?” Morris retorted.  “Well, why should we buy it fixtures what H. Rifkin throws out?”

“He don’t throw ’em out, Mawruss,” Abe said.  “He ain’t got no more use for ’em, Mawruss.  He busted up this morning.”

“You can’t make me feel bad by telling me that, Abe,” Morris rejoined.  “A sucker what takes from us a good customer like Henry Feigenbaum should of busted up long since already.  But that ain’t the point, Abe.  If we’re going to get it fixtures, we don’t want no second-hand articles.”

“They ain’t no second-hand articles, Mawruss,” Abe explained.  “They’re pretty near brand-new, and I got a particular reason why we should buy them fixtures, Mawruss.”

He paused for some expression of curiosity from his partner, but Mawruss merely pursed his lips and looked bored.

“Yes, Mawruss,” Abe went on, “I got it a particular reason why we should buy them fixtures, Mawruss.  You see, this here Rifkin got it the loft right upstairs one flight from us, Mawruss, and naturally he’s got it lots of out-of-town trade what don’t know he’s busted yet, Mawruss.”

“No?” Morris vouchsafed.

“So these here out-of-town customers comes up to see Rifkin.  They gets in the elevator and they says ‘Sixth,’ see?  And the elevator man thinks they says ‘Fifth,’ and he lets ’em off at our floor because there ain’t nobody on the sixth floor.  Well, Mawruss, we leave our store door open, and the customer sees Rifkin’s fixtures inside, so he walks in and thinks he’s in Rifkin’s place.  Before he finds out he ain’t, Mawruss, we sell him a bill of goods ourselves.”