“You can go in. He’s not here. He is the new auditor, an expert accountant from Los Angeles. Put in by the O. P. when it assumed control last year. He used to come down once a month. After Hardin went out, he came down to stay.”
“Whose say-so?”
“I don’t know. The accounts were rotten, that’s no office secret. The world knows that. Hardin is blamed for it. It isn’t fair. Look at Sather’s stone palace in Los Angeles. Look at Hardin’s tent, his shabby clothes.”
“I’d like to meet Ogilvie,” observed the general manager.
“Oh, he’s not much to meet. A pale white-livered vegetarian, a theosophist. You’ve seen ’em. Los Angeles is full of ’em. He was here when Hardin was fired. You could see him see his opportunity. His chest swelled up. He looked as if he had tasted meat for the first time. He thought that he could woozle into the empty place! He went back to Los Angeles, convinced them that the auditor should be here, protect the company’s interests. It sounded mysterious, sleuth-like, as if he had discovered something, so they let him bring the books down here. He is supposed to be ferreting. But he’s ‘woozling.’ He used to be in the outer office. Said the noise made his head ache, so he moved in here. All the committee meetings are held here, and occasionally the directors’ meetings. Water companies’, too. Ogilvie’s taking notes—wants to be the next general manager, it sticks out all over him.”
“What’s the derivation of woozle?” this with deep gravity.
“Wait till you see Ogilvie!” laughed his entertainer. Then as an afterthought: “This is all public gossip. He’s fair game.”
The door opened behind them, and Rickard saw the man whose description had been so deftly knocked off. He recognized the type seen so frequently in Southern California towns, the pale damaged exile whose chance of reprieve is conditioned by stern rules of diet and sobriety. It was the temperament which must perforce translate a personal necessity into a religious dogma.
“This gentleman’s just,—is just looking around,” stammered MacLean, blundering, confused.
The vegetarian nodded, taking off his felt sombrero and putting it on a chair with care.