"It can be seen there."
"Not if the face be to the wall; or if some one pull it down in half a minute after it is put up. The law requires the bills to be put up, but doesn't say how long they shall remain up."
"A bell will have to be rung, and a bill put up on the premises."
"Yes. But the bell can be rung in the alley at the rear of your house. Or a few strokes of it made on the opposite side of the street, and no one be the wiser for it. As to the bill, the poster, who understands all this, will put it up a little after daylight, when there is no one in the street. Before he is out of sight it can be torn down by a person employed for the purpose. For fifteen or twenty dollars all this can be managed to a charm."
"I never heard of this before," said Malcolm, opening his eyes with astonishment.
"It is done every day," replied the lawyer. "The men about the sheriff's office understand it all perfectly."
"Still, if anybody buys the goods, they must be delivered."
"That doesn't follow. You can get a friend to bid in everything in my name. He must bid very low, so that the entire amount of sales shall not exceed three hundred dollars. After that, I will settle all with the sheriff, and you can go on as before. The sale can take place in the room back of your store, and even your wife up stairs need not know it. All you have to do will be to furnish the deputy-sheriff with a correct list of what is to be sold. You can call a whole row of shelves a lot, to be struck off at a single bid, and he will go through all the forms of a sale in a low voice, and the clerk and customers in your store will be none the wiser."
"And that's the way it's done!" said Malcolm. "I have often wondered how people who were broken up root and branch managed to retain their furniture, for instance."
"It is by the aid of friends, through an amicable sale."