"Yes, Sam," Morris said as he caught sight of Max Kirschner's dejected figure, "you're lucky when you consider some people. You are still a young man and it ain't too late for you to start in as a new beginner somewhere. A young man could always make a living anyhow." "Sure," Sam agreed, "but why should I start in as a new beginner, Mawruss? I already got an established business, y'understand; and if I could get a feller with a headpiece, Mawruss--never mind he ain't got so much money--with a couple thousand dollars, we could run that feller from Sarahcuse out of town." "What feller from Sarahcuse?" Morris asked. "Ain't I told you?" Sam continued. "I thought I says that the reason the bank shuts down on me is a feller from Sarahcuse buys out them two suckers, Van Buskirk and Patterson, and he's going to operate the store as a branch house." Morris nodded his head slowly. "So, Sam," he said, "you are up against one of them sharks from Sarahcuse? I'm afraid you got a dead proposition in that store of yours." Two cups of coffee had revived Sam Green's ambition, however, and he laughed aloud. "You don't understand them people up in Cyprus, Mawruss," he said. "Strangers they don't like at all; and even me, though I lived in that town ten years, most of 'em wouldn't buy goods off of me because Van Buskirk and Patterson is born and raised in that town and they dealt with 'em ever since they was boys together. So you see I got ten years' start of that feller from Sarahcuse, Mawruss. If I could get some feller which he knows the garment business to go as partners together with me, and to put a little money into the store, we could yet do a good business there." "How much money would you got to have?" Morris asked. "Two thousand dollars, anyhow," Sam replied. Morris tapped the table with his right index finger and frowned reflectively. "The necktie pin alone must be worth a thousand dollars," he murmured almost to himself, "and two rings he got it which I know about must stand him in anyhow a thousand dollars more." He thrust back his chair and rose to his feet. "All right, Sam," he said aloud. "You got a little egg on your chin. Wipe it off and we'll go back to the store. I got an idee." * * * * * "On second thought, Sam," Morris said as they approached Potash & Perlmutter's place of business, "I wouldn't go up with me if I was you on account I don't want to say nothing to my partner just yet a while. Where are you staying, Sam?" "I got a room at a hotel over on Third Avenue," Sam replied. "Third Avenue!" Morris exclaimed. "That's a _Nachbarschaft_ for a business man!" He handed Sam a five-dollar bill. "Go and get yourself a room over at the Prince Clarence," Morris said. "I'll be over there presently." Nathan, the shipping clerk, was alone in the showroom when Morris entered. "Ain't my partner come back yet, Nathan?" he demanded. Nathan shook his head.