"Won't you give him a trial?" he asked.
"I have engaged Dan."
"If Dan should prove unsatisfactory, would you try my nephew?"
"Perhaps so."
It was an incautious concession, for it was an inducement to the book-keeper to get Dan into trouble.
It was Dan's duty to go to the post-office, sometimes to go on errands, and to make himself generally useful about the warehouses. As we know, however, he had other duties of a more important character, of which Mr. Talbot knew nothing.
The first discovery Dan made was made through the book-keeper's carelessness.
Mr. Rogers was absent in Philadelphia, when Talbot received a note which evidently disturbed him. Dan saw him knitting his brows, and looking moody. Finally he hastily wrote a note, and called Dan.
"Take that to — Wall street," he said, "and don't loiter on the way."
The note was directed to Jones & Robinson.