Finally, I went back to the president, and told him whom I suspected, and what my evidence was, and that I had not yet said anything to the young man about the bag or about him; and we arranged it that the young man should be invited to his house by me the next night; which was done, and he accompanied me. The president had prepared a room for a private conference, and after I had introduced the young man to the president, and informed him that he, and not I, was his benefactor, to whom the young man expressed his gratitude, I took up a paper from off the table on which I had placed it, and under which I had slyly tucked the bag. I had gotten the young man seated near the table. As I lifted the paper, and noticed the bag with its peculiar mark on it, I said to the president,—
"Beg pardon, Mr. ——, but this singular device excited my curiosity;" and I took up the bag and looked at it. "Allow me to ask what it is."
"O," said he, "it's a sort of private coat of arms. 'Tis a little curious, isn't it?" and he commented on it; and I, as a matter of politeness, passed it to the young man, asking, "Did you ever see anything like it before?"
"No, not that I know of," said he; "and yet there's something familiar to me about this bag," and he turned it over. "No, I never saw this device upon anything!" and he laid it down, and the conversation dropped on that point, and we fell into conversation about his old employer, the amount of his business, his habits, and so forth, and it was easy to see that he had no great respect for him. Finally I led on to the matter of having seen the jolly scrubber there, the woman Sarah, to whom he had given the bag; and finding she proved to be all right, I said to him, "Sarah gave me that bag, and that bag got you your present place, through the kindness of Mr. —— here."
The young man looked astonished, with a question in his eye, as if asking me to explain——.
"Well, I will explain. You remember one day (fixing the time), that, after office hours, when she came there to scrub, you and she got into a frolic, and threw things at each other?"
"O, yes," said he, "very well; and I hauled the bag out from under the counter, and threw it at her."
"Just so; that's her story too. And now I wish to ask you if you knew how that bag got under the counter?"
"Why, certainly. Mr. ——" (his employer, the broker), "took it out of his pocket a day or two before, and tucked it under there."
"What was his condition that day? that is, what was his health?"