Potash & Perlmutter: Their Copartnership Ventures and Adventures. Glass Montague

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СКАЧАТЬ that so?" Leon rejoined. "Maybe M. Garfunkel was an old customer of yours, too, Abe."

      "M. Garfunkel?" Abe cried. "Was M. Garfunkel the other?"

      "He certainly was," Leon boasted. "We shipped him three thousand dollars. One of our best customers, Abe. Always pays to the day."

      For the remainder of the subway journey Abe was quite unresponsive to Leon's jibes, a condition which Leon attributed to chagrin, and as they parted at Canal Street Leon could not forbear a final gloat.

      "I suppose, Abe, M. Garfunkel does too cheap a class of trade to suit you, also. Ain't it?" he said.

      Abe made no reply, and as he walked south toward White Street Max Lapidus, of Lapidus & Elenbogen, another and a smaller competitor, bumped into him.

      "Hallo, Abe," Max said. "What's that Leon Sammet was saying just now about M. Garfunkel?"

      "Oh, M. Garfunkel is a good customer of his," Abe replied cautiously; "so he claims."

      "Don't you believe it," said Max. "M. Garfunkel told me himself he used to do some business with Sammet Brothers, but he don't do it no more. We done a big business with M. Garfunkel ourselves."

      "So?" Abe commented.

      "We sold him a couple of thousand dollars at ninety days last week," Lapidus went on. "He's elegant pay, Abe. We sold him a good-size order every couple of months this season, and he pays prompt to the day. Once he discounted his bill."

      "Is that so?" Abe said, as they reached the front of Potash & Perlmutter's store. "Glad to hear M. Garfunkel is so busy. Good-morning, Max."

      Morris Perlmutter met him at the door.

      "Hallo, Abe," he cried. "What's the matter? You look pale. Is Rosie worse?"

      Abe shook his head.

      "Mawruss," he said, "did you ship them goods to M. Garfunkel yet?"

      "They'll be out in ten minutes," Morris replied.

      "Hold 'em for a while till I telephone over to Klinger & Klein," Abe said.

      "What you looking for, Abe?" Morris asked. "More information? You know as well as I do, Abe, that Klinger & Klein is so conservative they wouldn't sell Andrew Carnegie unless they got a certified check in advance."

      "That's all right, Mawruss," Abe rejoined. "Maybe they wouldn't sell Andrew Carnegie, but if I ain't mistaken they did sell M. Garfunkel. Everybody sold him, even Lapidus & Elenbogen. So I guess I'll telephone 'em."

      "Well, wait a bit, Abe," Morris cried. "My Minnie's girl Lina is here with her cousin. I brought 'em down this morning so you could talk to her yourself."

      "All right," Abe replied. "Tell 'em to come into the show-room."

      A moment later Lina and her cousin Anna entered the show-room. Both were arrayed in Potash & Perlmutter's style forty-twenty-two, but while Lina wore a green hat approximating the hue of early spring foliage, Anna's head-covering was yellow with just a few crimson-lake roses—about eight large ones—on the side.

      "Close the window, Mawruss," said Abe. "There's so much noise coming from outside I can't hear myself think."

      "The window is closed, Abe," Morris replied. "It's your imagination."

      "Well, then, which one is which, Mawruss?" Abe asked.

      "The roses is Anna," Morris said. "Anna, you want to work by Mr. Potash's lady?"

      "Sure she does," Abe broke in. "Only I want to ask you a few questions before I hire you. Who did you work by before, Anna?"

      Anna hung her head and simpered.

      "Mister M. Garfunkel," she murmured.

      "Is that so?" Morris exclaimed. "Why, he's a good customer of ours."

      "Don't butt in, Mawruss," Abe said. "And what did you leave him for, Anna?"

      "Me don't leave them," Anna replied. "Mrs. Garfunkel is fine lady. Mister Garfunkel, too. They leave me. They goin' away next month, out to the country."

      "Moving out to the country, hey?" said Abe. He was outwardly calm, but his eyes glittered. "What country?"

      Anna turned to her cousin Lina and spoke a few words of Lithuanian.

      "She say she don't remember," Lina explained, "but she say is something sounds like 'canned goods'."

      "Canned goods?" Morris murmured.

      Abe bit the ends of his mustache for a moment, and then he leaped to his feet. "Canada!" he yelled, and Lina nodded vigorously.

      He darted out of the show-room and ran to the telephone. In ten minutes he returned, his face bathed in perspiration.

      "Anna," he croaked, "you come to work by me. Yes? How much you get by that—that M. Garfunkel?"

      "Twenty dollars a month," Anna replied.

      "All right, we'll pay you twenty-two," he said. "You're cheap at the price. So I expect you this evening."

      He turned to his partner after the girls had gone.

      "Mawruss," he said, "put them goods for M. Garfunkel back in stock. I rung up Klinger & Klein and they sold him four thousand. I also rung up the Perfection Cloak and Suit Company—also four thousand; Margolius & Fried—two thousand; Levy, Martin & Co.—three thousand, and so on. The way I figure it, he must of bought a hundred thousand dollars' worth of goods, all in the last few days, and all at ninety days net. He couldn't get a quarter of the goods in that First Avenue building of his, Mawruss, so where is the rest? Auction houses, Mawruss, north, south, east and west, and I bet yer he got the advance checks for each consignment deposited in Montreal right now. I bet yer he didn't even unpack the cases before he reshipped. Tell Miss Cohen to come in and bring her book."

      When Miss Cohen took her seat Abe rose and cleared his throat for an epistle worthy of the occasion.

      "The Paris. M. Garfunkel, Proprietor," he said. "Gents: Owing to circumstances which has arose——No. Wait a bit."

      He cleared his throat more vigorously.

      "The Paris. M. Garfunkel, Proprietor," he said. "Gents: Owing to the fact that the U-nited States bankruptcy laws don't go nowheres except in the U-nited States, we are obliged to cancel the order what you give us. Thanking you for past favors and hoping to do a strictly-cash business with you in the future, we are truly yours, Potash & Perlmutter."

      Miss Cohen shut her book and arose.

      "Wait a bit, Miss Cohen. I ain't through yet," Abe said. He tilted backward and forward on his toes for a moment.

      "P.S.," he concluded. "We hope you'll like it in Canada."

CHAPTER V

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