his instance of an impatient spirit in Hiram, as probably the
last he ever exhibited through his whole life. What could cause it?

Presently the waiter came back. The _Clarion_ was in his hand. Hiram
took it eagerly, turned swiftly to the 'City Items,' and nodded with
intense satisfaction as his eye rested on one paragraph.

* * * * *

At ten o'clock precisely, Hiram presented himself at the counting room
of Elihu Joslin. Again he was forced to wait some time, and again he
waited most patiently.

[I ought to state that Hill, in order to keep up his credit with his
employer, his bravado being sensibly cooled the following morning, had
made up all sorts of stories about Mr. Burns's affairs, which, as he
reported, had been pumped from Hiram, whom he professed to have left in
a most dilapidated state at the hotel.]

At length Mr. Joslin would see Hiram. The latter entered and sat down.

'Well, my young friend,' said the merchant, 'what do you think of New
York? Equal to Burnsville, eh? Did Hill do the polite thing by you?'

'Mr. Joslin,' said Hiram, seriously, and quite in his natural manner,
while he fixed his quiet but strangely searching eyes on him, 'I have an
important communication to make to you?'

'Well?'

'I am not what I appear to be!'

'No? What the devil are you then?'

'I am the CONFIDENTIAL CLERK of Joel Burns, sent here by him to ferret
out and punish your rascalities. Stay,' continued Hiram--perceiving
Joslin was about to break forth in some violent demonstrations. 'Sit
down, sir, and hear me through quietly. It is your best course. It is
your ONLY course. Now listen. You have undertaken to cheat my
employer. You have rendered false accounts of sales, using your own
clerks for sham purchasers, and employing stool-pigeon auctioneers. You
have attempted to swindle him generally. I have the whole story here.
_You are in my power_.'

'By----! that's more than I'll stand,' shouted Joslin, 'from any d----d
Connecticut Yankee.'

'Stop,' said Hiram, authoritatively. 'A word more, and you are ruined
past all redemption. Read that,' and he handed him the _Clarion_,
placing his finger on a particular paragraph. Joslin took the paper. His
hand trembled, but he managed to read as follows:

'Some extraordinary disclosures have reached us, involving a
wholesale paper house in Nassau street in large swindling
transactions. We forbear to give the name of the part