'I am not what I appear to be!'
'No? What the devil are you then?'
'I am the CONFIDENTIAL CLERK of Joel Burns, sent here by him to ferret out and punish your rascalities. Stay,' continued Hiram—perceiving Joslin was about to break forth in some violent demonstrations. 'Sit down, sir, and hear me through quietly. It is your best course. It is your ONLY course. Now listen. You have undertaken to cheat my employer. You have rendered false accounts of sales, using your own clerks for sham purchasers, and employing stool-pigeon auctioneers. You have attempted to swindle him generally. I have the whole story here. You are in my power.'
'By——! that's more than I'll stand,' shouted Joslin, 'from any d——d Connecticut Yankee.'
'Stop,' said Hiram, authoritatively. 'A word more, and you are ruined past all redemption. Read that,' and he handed him the Clarion, placing his finger on a particular paragraph. Joslin took the paper. His hand trembled, but he managed to read as follows:
'Some extraordinary disclosures have reached us, involving a wholesale paper house in Nassau street in large swindling transactions. We forbear to give the name of the party implicated, but understand that the police to-morrow will be in possession of the facts.'
'Here,' said Hiram, showing a bundle of papers, 'are the documents. Outside there on the curbstone stands an officer. I mean to make short work of it. Will you behave rationally or not?'
Joslin sat down.
'What do you want?' he said at length.
'I want nothing but what is HONEST, sir—that I mean to have,' said Hiram, in a mild, but very firm tone. 'Here is the account as it ought to be rendered. Look it over, and put your name to it.'