.
You'll get it where the chicken got the a-x-e; you'll get it with the
bank guillotine. You're now doing thirty dollars worth of work each
week at a salary of seven dollars. What guarantee have you that the
bank will ever change its policy toward you? If they tie a can on you
to-day, it will be a tin pail to-morrow and a milk-can the next day.
Haven't they done it to me, to Willis, to Key, to Levison and a hundred
others? My boy, they don't give a fig for you."

So saying, Sam Robb humped his big shoulders and slouched up to his
desk, there to bury his head in a gigantic ledger for the balance of
the day.

Evan was troubled. He still believed that Robb was exaggerating; had
not the ex-manager brought upon himself most of his failure? Evan had
heard that pet charge made against disgruntled clerks, and it came to
his mind automatically. Still, he had evidence of Robb's faithfulness
both at Mt. Alban and here in the city branch, and--he was troubled.

To Evan's surprise, mail from the north brought the cheque Penton had
promised to hold in the cash for a week. Not having checked out of his
hotel yet, he had not submitted an expense account to Toronto office,
and consequently had no funds.

The accountant brought the cheque to Nelson.

"Don't you know that floating cheques is against the rules?" he said,
menacingly.

"Yes, sir, but Mr. Penton promised to hold it for me. Besides--"

"That makes no difference," returned Charon, impatiently, "this sort of
thing has got to stop."

Evan tried to get a word in, but the accountant, declaring he had no
time for parleying, turned away with: "We'll hold it over till
to-morrow."

Had Penton tried to get the ex-teller "in bad" by sending the cheque so
soon? It would, thought Nelson, be perfectly in harmony with the
Banfield manager's knavery. Probably Henty had quit, suddenly; and,
angered, Penton had sought revenge on Henty's old associate. However,
there was no harm done, thought Evan; and he dismissed the matter from
his mind--the cash book was load enough.

The cash book was, in fact, more than enough of a load, at first. On
the second day of Evan's city experience, about six o'clock, Robb came
around and asked him how he was progressing.

"I'm all balled up," was the answer.

Robb grinned.

"Never mind," he said, "come on up to the house and I'll help you out
after supper. Never work--especially on a cash book--when you need
nourishment."

Unwill