"When did the order reach your hands?" I asked; "and do you remember the circumstance of its arrival in the mail?"
"I well remember all about it," said he; "I opened the mail that day myself, as usual. I think it was one of the last days in March. I shall never forget the astonished look of neighbor N., as he perused the order converting him into a private citizen once more."
"He wasn't satisfied with a certified copy of the unwelcome document, was he?" I remarked. "And, by the way, what was the object of serving a copy of the paper on him?"
"Well," he rejoined, with a slight embarrassment, "the fact is, I thought I had better retain the original for my own protection, in case of any fuss. He had to have it, however, before he would shut up shop."
At this juncture I produced the "order," and laying it before him, requested that he would turn to the entry of a free letter on his "mails received," at the time of the receipt of this one. The search was in vain, as I well knew it would be; and he undertook to explain that circumstance by claiming that official letters frequently came from Washington without wrapper or post-bill.
By this time he evidently began to construe my inquiries into a suspicion of his fraudulent conduct; and, as in all such cases, every attempt to extricate himself only made the matter worse.
"Come to think of it," said he, "I was absent from home the day that letter arrived, and on my return I took it from my private box where my letters are put," at the same time pointing to a pigeon-hole in a small letter-case over the desk.
"And would your wife open the mail in your absence?" I inquired.
Receiving an affirmative answer, I requested him to call her, taking care that they should hold no private conversation. Exhibiting to her the outside of the letter, I asked if she recollected taking it from the mail and placing it in the post master's box. They exchanged glances, and, on the second look towards him, I was just in time to observe a trifling nod of the head by way of intimating that she had better say yes. But she thought otherwise, and was quite positive that if such a thing had come loose in the bag, at any time when she opened the mail, she would have noticed it.
"To come right to the point," said I, "this document is disowned by the Department, and no authority has been given to any one to discontinue the other office."