Part 52 (2/2)
”It goes too far!” Borrochson cried. ”Twicet already he does that to me and makes also my nose bleed. The next time I make him arrested.”
”What's the matter with him?” Wolfson asked. ”Is he crazy?”
”He makes me crazy,” Borrochson replied. ”I wish I never seen the safe.”
”The safe!” Wolfson exclaimed. ”What's he got to do with the safe?”
”Oh, nothing,” Borrochson answered guardedly; ”just a little business between him and me about it.”
”But, Mr. Borrochson,” Wolfson coaxed, ”there can't be no harm in telling me about it.”
He handed a cigar to Borrochson, who examined it suspiciously and put it in his pocket.
”Seed tobacco always makes me a stomachache,” he said, ”unless I smoke it after a meal.”
”That ain't no seed tobacco,” Wolfson protested; ”that's a clear Havana cigar. But anyhow, what's the matter with this here Who's-this and the safe?”
”Well,” Borrochson commenced, ”the feller's name is Rubin, and he makes it a failure in the jewellery business on Rivington Street last June already. I went and bought the safe at the receiver's sale, and ever since I got it yet he bothered the life out of me I should sell him back the safe.”
”Well, why don't you do it?”
”Because we can't come to terms,” Borrochson replied. ”He wants to give me five hundred for the safe, and I couldn't take it a cent less than seven-fifty.”
”But what did you give for the safe when you bought it originally already?” Wolfson asked.
”Forty-five dollars.”
Wolfson whistled.
”What's the matter with it?” he said finally.
”To tell you the candid and honest truth,” Borrochson replied, ”I don't see nothing the matter with the safe. Fifty dollars I paid it to experts who looked at that safe with telescopes already, like they was doctors, and they couldn't find nothing the matter with it, neither.
The safe is a safe, they say, and that's all there is to it.”
Wolfson nodded gravely.
”But there must be something the matter with the safe. Ain't it?”
”Sure, there must be,” Borrochson agreed, ”and if Rubin don't want to buy it back, either I will blow it up the safe or melt it down.”
”That would be a foolish thing to do,” Wolfson said.
”Well, if the safe is worth five hundred to Rubin,” Borrochson declared, ”it's worth seven hundred and fifty to me. That's the way I figure it.”
Wolfson blew great clouds from one of his seed tobacco cigars and pondered for a minute.
”I tell you what I'll do, Borrochson,” he said at last. ”Give me a day to examine the safe and I'll make you an offer right now of five hundred and fifty for it.”
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