"Oh, what a rascal!" murmured Randy.
"Then I introduced him to another man, Aaron Denman, and he got goods from that man too and got his commission—how much I do not know. For introducing him to Denman I was promised that commission of twenty dollars. I saw Polk was making money hand over fist, and when he did not pay me I got mad and wrote the letter."
"And you are sure you never got a cent more out of him than thirty-five dollars?"
"Not a cent. Once in a while he treated me to a dinner and twice he sent me a box of cigars, and that is all. To tell the honest truth, I did not press him very hard, for I did not believe in what he was doing. I want to be an honest man, and I was led into this thing almost before I knew it," continued George Gaffney.
After that he went into a great many more details, to which Andrew Shalley and Randy listened with interest.
"I can get the actual figures for you from our books," said the clerk.
"What does your firm say to this?" asked the steamboat owner.
"Oh, they wanted the business, so they simply shut their eyes and didn't say anything."
"But that was dishonest."
"True—but such things are done every day," and the clerk shrugged his shoulders.