'Did you discharge him?'
'Yes.'
'Why?'
'What business is that of your's?' he asked, rather huffily.
'My name, sir, is M——, of the police. I am after this fellow, that's all. Tell me, if you please, why you discharged him?'
'Oh, I beg your pardon,' said Mr. L——. 'I took you for one of his rascally associates. I discharged him a week or ten days ago. He was a dissipated, good-for-nothing fellow.'
'Was he your bookkeeper?'
'No, he was a junior clerk.'
'Have you any of his handwriting that you can show me?'
He fumbled in a side pocket and drew out a pocketbook from which he took a memorandum of agreement, or some paper of the sort, to the bottom of which a signature was attached as witness.