The letter, written on the embossed stationery of the Ventilation Company, ran as follows:
"No. 44,667,023 XZ, Third Class,
c/o Mechanical Hospital No. 807 QL,
Third Class.
"Dear Sir:
"By virtue of your distinguished services on the line of duty, we are honored, on the recommendation of our Manager, Go Grabl, to promote you from Ventilating Clerk to Ventilating Inspector, the appointment to take effect as soon as you are able to return to work. In your new capacity, your hours will be half what you formerly served, and by way of compensation, your salary will be doubled. We remain,
"Appreciatively yours,
"THE VENTILATION COMPANY OF WU,
"(Per Do Quil, Ninety-Eighth Vice-President)."
It is from my appointment as Ventilating Inspector that I date the beginning of my phenomenal rise in the affairs of the Underworld.
CHAPTER XX
Ordeal and Crisis
For seven "wakes" I remained in the hospital. Even though I did not at all like the place, with its automatic service and its total absence of living attendants, still I lived in hourly dread of being removed and sent back to Professor Tan Trum's home. I knew that, true to his word, he had put in an application to have me taken out; but what I did not know was that a thousand formalities had to be observed before the application could be granted. There were blanks to fill out, and signatures to secure, and affidavits to sign, and fees to pay, and half a score of clerks to affix their approval; hence, while Tan Trum and Loa were doing their frantic best to obtain the release permit, the "wakes" continued to slip past, and I remained in the hospital. In the course of time, indeed, Tan Trum's application was duly approved—but not before I had already been discharged as cured.