"I don't think he would find it easy to get it away from me," said Gilbert, with the confidence of youth.
"You are too confident, Gilbert. You are but a boy, and he is a strong man. Besides, he will want to take it in his hands."
"Would you not advise me to carry it then, sir?"
"Not the original. Can you not make a copy of the paper?"
"But I am to call at three."
"You will have time enough. It is not long."
"Then I shall be obliged to neglect my duties here."
"Oh! as to that, in a matter of such importance, I will readily excuse you. You can go home at once, and get to work."
"Thank you, sir."
Gilbert lost no time in availing himself of the permission accorded to him. Reaching his boarding-house—the same one to which the reader has already been introduced—he took the important paper from its secure resting-place in his trunk, and, seating himself at the table, began to copy it rapidly. When he first entered Mr. Ferguson's establishment, he could scarcely write at all; but he knew how important a good handwriting was, to one who aspired to be a business man, and he therefore soon commenced taking lessons. Now he was master of a handsome hand. Jacob, too, was a good writer, with a handwriting quite similar to his, so that, without any great effort, he succeeded in producing a document very nearly resembling the original.