e sick to hear him imply
that somebody would make a report against him.

"Oh!" I asked shocked, "who would think of such a scurvy trick, sir?" I
was half disgusted with him for having the mere notion of it.

"Who?" says he, speaking very low. "Anybody. One of the office
messengers maybe. I've risen to be the Senior of this office and we are
all very good friends here, but don't you think that my colleague that
sits next to me wouldn't like to go up to this desk by the window four
years in advance of the regulation time? Or even one year for that
matter. It's human nature."

"I could not help turning my head. The three fellows who had been
skylarking when I came in were now talking together very soberly, and the
long-necked chap was going on with his writing still. He seemed to me
the most dangerous of the lot. I saw him sideface and his lips were set
very tight. I had never looked at mankind in that light before. When
one's young human nature shocks one. But what startled me most was to
see the door I had come through open slowly and give passage to a head in
a uniform cap with a Board of Trade badge. It was that blamed old
doorkeeper from the hall. He had run me to earth and meant to dig me out
too. He walked up the office smirking craftily, cap in hand.

"What is it, Symons?" asked Mr. Powell.

"I was only wondering where this 'ere gentleman 'ad gone to, sir. He
slipped past me upstairs, sir."

I felt mighty uncomfortable.

"That's all right, Symons. I know the gentleman," says Mr. Powell as
serious as a judge.

"Very well, sir. Of course, sir. I saw the gentleman running races all
by 'isself down 'ere, so I . . ."

"It's all right I tell you," Mr. Powell cut him short with a wave of his
hand; and, as the old fraud walked off at last, he raised his eyes to me.
I did not know what to do: stay there, or clear out, or say that I was
sorry.

"Let's see," says he, "what did you tell me your name was?"

"Now, observe, I hadn't given him my name at all and his question
embarrassed me a bit. Somehow or other it didn't seem proper for me to
fling his own name at him as it were. So I merely pulled out my new
certificate from my pocket and put it into his hand unfolded, so that he
could read _Charles Powell_ written very plain on the parchment.

"He dropped his eyes on to it and after a while laid it quietly on the
desk by his side. I didn't know whether he meant to make any remark on
this co