“No; don't get me wrong,” Mr. Caruthers hastened to explain. “I said I travelled for Gatling & Moore. You see, they sell everything, nearly--musical instruments is just one of their lines. I handle--er--sporting goods--playing cards, poker chips, guns, pistols, athletic supplies; all like that, you understand. That's my branch of the business; musical goods is another branch. “But what I was going to suggest was this: Izzy Gottlieb, who's the head of the musical department in the New York office, is one of the best friends I've got on this earth. If I was to walk in and say to Izzy--yes, even if I was to write in to him and tell him I had a friend who was figuring on buying a clarinet--I know exactly what old Izzy would do. Izzy would just naturally turn the whole shop upside down until he found the niftiest little old clarinet there was in stock, and as a favour to me he'd let us have it at just exactly cost. That's what good old Izzy would do in a blooming minute. Altogether it ought to come to about half what you'd pay for the identical same article out of a retail place down in this country.” “But could you, sir--would you be willing to do that much for a stranger?” Stress of emotion made Emanuel's voice husky. “If you don't believe I would do just that very thing, why, a dime'll win you a trip to the Holy Land!” answered back the engaging Caruthers beamingly and enthusiastically. Then his tone grew earnest: “Listen here, Moon: no man that I take a liking to is a stranger to me--not any more. And I've got to own up to it--I like you. You're my kind of a man--frank, open, on the level; and yet not anybody's easy mark either. I'll bet you're a pretty good hand at sizing up people offhand yourself. Oh, I knew you'd do, the minute I laid eyes on you.” “Thank you; much obliged,” murmured Emanuel. To all intents he was overcome. “Now, then,” continued his new-found friend warmly, “let me suggest this: You go ahead and look at the clarinet that this piking Louisville concern's got for sale if you want to, but don't buy. Just look--there's no harm in that. But don't invest. “I'm on my way back to New York now to--to lay in my new lines for the trade. I'll see old Izzy the first thing after I blow in and I'll get the niftiest clarinet that ever played a tune--get it at actual cost, mind you! I'll stick it down into one of my trunks and bring it back with me down this way. “Let's see”--he consulted a small memorandum book--“I ought to strike this territory again in about ten days or two weeks. We'll make it two weeks, to be sure. Um--this is Wednesday. I'll hit your town on Tuesday, the twenty-ninth--that's two weeks from yesterday. I ought to get in from Memphis sometime during the afternoon. I'll come to your bank to find you. You're always there on Tuesdays, ain't you?” “Oh, yes,” said Emanuel. “Don't you remember my telling you that on Tuesdays Herb Kivil always left early to play tennis and I closed up?”