"Is this the guide by which I am to regulate my conduct in Bellevale?" asked he, after looking it over.
"Well," said the judge, "it may not be quite like remembering all about things; but anyhow it will help some, won't it?"
"I suppose I'm to carry it with me, and when an acquaintance accosts me on the street, I'm to look him up in the index and find out who he is, before I decide whether to shake hands with him or cut him, am I?"
"Not exactly that way," said the judge; "that wouldn't be practicable, you know; but it's ten to one you'll find his name there. I tell you, that compilation——"
"Te tifision into gategories," broke in the professor, "according to te brinciples of lotchik was te chutche's itea. A vonderfully inchenious blan. It vill enaple you——"
"Has it any plan of reference," interrupted Amidon, "by which I shall be enabled to find out about a man when I don't know who he is?"
"N—no."
"Or, in such a case, to give me knowledge of my past relations with him, or whether I like him or hate him?"
"Of course," said the judge, "we only try to do the possible. The law requires no man to do more."
"Does this thing," said Amidon, shaking it in evident disgust, "tell where I live in Bellevale, whether in lodgings or at a hotel, or in my own house? Could I take it and find my home?"