perpetually on the point of choking himself by suppressed chucklings at
his principal's cleverness and the simplicity of dupes.

"Well, Joe?"

"Two to see you, sir," said Joe, his face lit up with sprightly malice.
"On the same lay. That Watkins farm of yours. I got it out of 'em. Ho ho!
I kept 'em in different rooms. I hunted up their records in your record
books. Doomsday Books, I call 'em. Ho ho!"

Mr. Mitchell selected a cigar, lit it, puffed it, and fixed his eye on
his demon clerk.

"Now then," he said sharply, "let's have it!"

The demon pounced on a Brobdingnagian volume upon the desk and worried it
open at a marker. It had been meant for a ledger, that huge volume; the
gray cloth covers bore the legend "N to Z." Ledger it was, of a grim
sort, with sinister entries of forgotten sins, the itemized strength or
weakness of a thousand men. The confidential clerk ran a long,
confidential finger along the spidery copperplate index of the W's:
"Wakelin, Walcott, Walker, Wallace, Walsh, Walters; Earl, John, Peter,
Ray, Rex, Roy--Samuel--page 1124." His nimble hands flew at the pages
like a dog at a woodchuck hole.

"Here't is--'Walters, Samuel: born '69, son of John Walters, Holland
Hill; religion--politics--um-um--bad habits, none; two years Vesper
Academy; three years Dennison shoe factories; married 1896--one child, b.
1899. Bought Travis Farm 1898, paying half down; paid balance out in five
years; dairy, fifteen cows; forehanded, thrifty. Humph! Good pay, I
guess."

He cocked his head to one side and eyed his employer, fingering a wisp of
black silk on his upper lip.

"And the other?"

The second volume was spread open upon the desk. Clerk Pelman flung
himself upon it with savage fury.

"Bowen, Chauncey, son William Bowen, born 1872--um--um--married Louise
Hill 92--um--divorced '96; married Laura Wing '96--see Lottie Hall. Ran
hotel at Larren '95 to '97; sheriff's sale '97; worked Bowen Farm '97 to
1912; bought Eagle Hotel, Vesper, after death of William Bowen, 1900.
Traded Eagle Hotel for Griffin Farm, 1912; sold Griffin Farm, 1914; clerk
Simon's hardware store, Emmonsville, Pennsylvania. Heavy drinker, though
seldom actually drunk; suspected of some share in the Powers affair,
or some knowledge, at least; poker fiend. Bank note protested and paid by
endorser 1897, and again in 1902; has since repaid endorsers. See Larren
Hotel, Eagle Hotel."

"Show him in," said Mitchell.

"Walters?" The impish cl