here for, and after he publicly
complimented me on the admirable manner in which my books were kept,
too?" and the industrious knight of the ledger and the daybook had such
a look of worry on his face that it was all Mr. Winslow could do to keep
from laughing outright.

"The porter may have been mistaken after all; or even if he did see the
gentleman that fact need not give you any alarm. Possibly he is doing
something for Mr. Gibbs; or else has been engaged to straighten out the
books of the defunct firm across the way. Forget it, and be happy," he
said; and the other went back to his desk shaking his head as if he did
not fully like the situation.

Dick found himself looking toward the door every time any one came in,
and fervently hoping that Mr. Cheever might show up; for if he came it
would doubtless signify that he had been successful in his hunt for the
missing securities.

Every time he went out he could see the same crowd about the closed
doors of the big store; people could not get over the novelty of the
failure, possibly the first that had come to Riverview these many years,
and certainly the worst by long odds.

Many in town had also suffered as well as the foreign creditors; and the
name of Archibald Graylock was being held up to execration in many
quarters where he had borrowed small sums, or else bought goods to fill
a gap, and for which he had never settled.

Once he was seized upon by Ferd who had been hovering around, possibly
at his father's desire, to hear what was being said of the man who had
gone down with such a smash.

Ferd looked doleful enough, and Dick did not have the heart to feel
glad.

Knowing what he did of the Graylock son and heir, Dick had before now
decided in his own mind that this failure of his father might be the
making of Ferd; certainly it was not going to do him any particular harm
to be thrown out on his own resources, and there was a chance that it
would arouse a slumbering spark of ambition that may have never awakened
only for this sudden change.

"This is a mighty rough deal we're up against, Dick. The old man seems
to think you know something about those securities he lost the other
day. If you do you've played the meanest trick on him that ever was; for
he says they would have kept his head above water. But between you and
me I believe the old man is getting a bit looney, and that he has pawned
them long ago. I'll be glad to get away from this miserable littl