"Did he come back from lunch so soon?" Abe asked. "He came in right after he went out," she replied. "I guess he must be sick. He looks sick." Abe turned pale. "I guess he found it out," he said to himself as he descended the stairs and made for the show-room. When he entered he found Morris seated in a chair with the first edition of an evening paper clutched in his hand. "What's the matter, Mawruss?" Abe said. Morris gulped once or twice and made a feeble attempt to brandish the paper. "Matter?" he croaked. "Nothing's the matter. Only, we are out twenty-five hundred dollars. That's all." "No, we ain't, Mawruss," Abe protested. "What we are out in one way we make in another." Morris sought to control himself, but his pent-up emotions gave themselves vent. "We do, hey?" he roared. "Well, maybe you think because I took your fool advice this oncet that I'll do it again?" He grew red in the face. "Gambler!" he yelled. "Fool! You shed my blood! What? You want to ruin me! Hey?" Abe had expected a tirade, but nothing half as violent as this. "Mawruss," he said soothingly, "don't take it so particular." He might as well have tried to stem Niagara with a shovel. "Ain't the cloak and suit business good enough for you?" Morris went on. "Must you go throwing away money on stocks from stock exchanges?" Abe scratched his head. These rhetorical questions hardly fitted the situation, especially the one about throwing away money. "Look-y here, Mawruss," he said, "if you think you scare me by this theayter acting you're mistaken. Just calm yourself, Mawruss, and tell me what you heard it. I ain't heard nothing." For answer Morris handed him the evening paper. "Sensational Failure in Wall Street," was the red-letter legend on the front page. With bulging eyes Abe took in the import of the leaded type which disclosed the news that Gunst & Baumer, promoters of Interstate Copper, having boosted its price to five, were overwhelmed by a flood of profit-taking. To support their stock Gunst & Baumer were obliged to buy in all the Interstate offered at five, and when at length their resources gave out they announced their suspension. Interstate immediately collapsed and sold down in less than a quarter of an hour from five bid, five and a thirty-second asked, to a quarter bid, three-eighths asked. Abe handed back the paper to Morris and lit a cigar. "For a man what has just played his partner for a sucker, Abe," Morris said, "you take it nice and quiet." Abe puffed slowly before replying. "After all, Mawruss," he said, "I was right." "You was right?" Morris exclaimed. "What d'ye mean?"