He's close, Dave Harum is,"
said Chet with a convincing motion of the head; "on the hull, the
clostest man I ever see. I believe," he averred, "that if he was to lay
out to keep it shut that lightnin' might strike him square in the mouth
an' it wouldn't go in an eighth of an inch. An' yet," he added, "he c'n
talk by the rod when he takes a notion."

"Must be a difficult person to get on with," commented John dryly.

"I couldn't stan' it no longer," declared Mr. Timson with the air of one
who had endured to the end of virtue, "an' I says to him the other day,
'Wa'al,' I says, 'if I can't suit ye, mebbe you'd better suit
yourself.'"

"Ah!" said John politely, seeing that some response was expected of him;
"and what did he say to that?"

"He ast me," replied Chet, "if I meant by that to throw up the
situation. 'Wa'al,' I says 'I'm sick enough to throw up most anythin','
I says, 'along with bein' found fault with fer nothin'.'"

"And then?" queried John, who had received the impression that the
motion to adjourn had come from the other side of the house.

"Wa'al," replied Chet, not quite so confidently, "he said somethin'
about my requirin' a larger spear of action, an' that he thought I'd do
better on a mile track--some o' his hoss talk. That's another thing,"
said Timson, changing the subject. "He's all fer hosses. He'd sooner
make a ten-dollar note on a hoss trade than a hunderd right here 'n this
office. Many's the time right in bus'nis hours, when I've wanted to ask
him how he wanted somethin' done, he'd be busy talkin' hoss, an'
wouldn't pay no attention to me more'n 's if I wa'n't there."

"I am glad to feel," said John, "that you can not possibly have any
unpleasant feeling toward me, seeing that you resigned as you did."

"Cert'nly not, cert'nly not," declared Timson, a little uneasily. "If it
hadn't 'a' ben you, it would 'a' had to ben somebody else, an' now I
seen you an' had a talk with you--Wa'al, I guess I better git back into
the other room. Dave's liable to come in any minute. But," he said in
parting, "I will give ye piece of advice: You keep enough laid by to pay
your gettin' back to N'York. You may want it in a hurry," and with this
parting shot the rejected one took his leave.

* * * * *

The bank parlor was lighted by a window and a glazed door in the rear
wall, and another window on the south side. Mr. Harum's desk was by the
rear, or west, window, which gave