It was just at two o'clock that a most peculiar incident occurred, and one that gave Dick considerable amusement.
He was waiting in the outer room for a paper which the president intended sending to the post office to go by registered mail, when who should come in but Ferd Graylock, accompanied by his father; who, as one of the officers of the bank, went straight back to the room of the president without ceremony, leaving his son in the public waiting-room.
Of course Ferd immediately spied Dick there and sauntered over, with his customary air of importance.
"Hello! Morrison, what are you doing here? I didn't you know you were a depositor in our bank," he said, with a patronizing manner that at first made Dick grit his teeth, and then caused him to smile as a sudden suspicion flashed across into his mind.
"Oh! I drift in occasionally to drop a few hundred thousand for safe keeping," he replied, in a spirit of irony.
"What are you here for anyway?" demanded Ferd, eyeing the other with a sneer.
"Just waiting for something at present."
"Oh! I see, your mother has probably been making arrangements to borrow on her tied-up investments. It's hard lines, old fellow. Now, you ought to do something in the way of business, instead of spending your time fishing, as I hear you are doing. I expect to branch out that way myself. My old man says my school days are over, because my report was so very depressing this term. He believes I would make a splendid banker; and he's just gone back to consult with Gibbs about starting me in here."
"Oh!" was all Dick trusted himself to say.
Apparently that position formerly occupied by the departed Charles was not going around begging for applicants; nor was the cashier the only one who had his eye upon it.