"I'm glad that you think so, 'cos I don't know as you'd approve of such kinds of pickings."
"Approve of 'em?" echoed the inspector. "No matter; you go on, and while talking I'll order more lush."
"I didn't find so many chances to make a fortune as I expected here," Jackson continued, "but I got employment in a store, where I worked daytimes, and at night I used to do a little on my own account in the pasteboard line; but I wasn't very successful, and somehow or other I think I was cheated."
"It's exceedingly probable," cried the inspector, sotto voce.
"And when I found that I was cleaned out after a few weeks, I attempted to retrieve my losses by borrowing from my employers," Jackson continued.
"Without their consent or knowledge," Mr. Brown remarked.
The young fellow smiled faintly, and nodded his head in token of assent, and then continued:
"One day I borrowed a hundred pounds, thinking that I could replace it without its being missed, if I was lucky at cards; but somehow I wasn't, and my employers began to make a stir in relation to the matter."
"That must have been exceedingly disagreeable to your feelings," the inspector insinuated.
"Well, it was rather hard, I will own, 'cos I might have been lucky after a while, and then I could have paid the whole debt without trouble; but men in business don't seem to have much consideration for their clerks; and I think that a good deal of crime originates through their obstinacy and stupidity.