“I am most very glad to meet you, sir!” exclaimed Philo Gubb, and again he shook his visitor’s hand. “Because—”
“Ah, yes, because—” queried the Bald Impostor pleasantly.
“Because,” said Philo Gubb, “there’s a question I want to ask. I refer to Lesson Seven, ‘Petty Thievery, Detecting Same, Charges Therefor.’ I have had some trouble with ‘Charges Therefor.’”
“Indeed? Let me see the lesson, please,” said the Bald Impostor.
“‘The charges for such services,’” Philo Gubb read, pointing to the paragraph with his long forefinger, “‘should be not less than ten dollars per diem.’ That’s what it says, ain’t it?”
“It does,” said the Bald Impostor.
“Well, Mr. Burns,” said Philo Gubb, “I took on a job of chicken-thief detecting, and I had to detect for two diems to do it, and that would be twenty dollars, wouldn’t it?”
“It would,” said the Bald Impostor.
“Which is fair and proper,” said Philo Gubb, “but the old gent wouldn’t pay it. So I ask you if you’d be kindly willing to go to him along with me in company and tell him I charged right and according to rates as low as possible?”
“Of course I will go,” said the Bald Impostor.