I pa.s.sed it to him. He read it, shook his head, and said:

"Guess you believe me now, don't you, Mr. Black?"

I nodded. That's all I could do.

He shrugged his shoulders and said:

"Well, two weeks' money don't hurt me very much. I hope, Boss, he hasn't stung you."

I went cold at the thought of it. I didn't think it could be true, but, when I came to think it over, I realized that I had taken his word for almost everything.

I went home and told mother and Betty about it, and they advised me to get in touch with Mr. Barlow at once. I said I wouldn't do that--I wasn't going to leave a man and then two or three days afterwards run to him for help. I thought of Fellows of the Flaxon Advertising Company. I telephoned his house and, fortunately, caught him, and he came right around to see me.

He asked me if I had had a lawyer draw up the agreement. I told him "no." He asked me if I had had an inventory made before buying the store. I told him "no." He asked me if I had verified the profits of the business for the last two years. I told him "no." He asked me if I had had the books audited at all. I told him "no."

"Good G.o.d, lad," he said, "what have you done, anyhow?"

And then I acted like a fool. I burst out crying and told him that what I had done had been to make an a.s.s of myself and to give Jim Simpson $6500.00.

He thought a minute and said:

"Well, I should think the store would be worth very nearly that, from what I know of it. It may not be so bad, after all."

But, when I told him that I had also given Jim a note for $3500.00 he persuaded me to go to see a lawyer in the morning, and promised that he would telephone to Boston to arrange with a jobber whom he knew and from whom I knew Jim Simpson bought goods, to send some one over to help me take an inventory.

CHAPTER IV.

IN TROUBLE

I spent a wretched night wondering if Jim, after all, would play such a dirty trick as to rob an old schoolmate.

Fellows telephoned me from his office and said that if I would come there, the lawyer was there and we could all talk the matter over together.

In ten minutes I knew the truth, I learned that the transfer was made properly to me and that I was responsible for that $3500.00, and, according to the deed of transfer which Jim gave me, the note for $3500.00 was payable _on demand_.

I told Barrington, the lawyer, that I'd swear the note was payable one year after date. He asked me, "Are you sure?"--and if he hadn't asked me that I would have been, but as it was I was wondering which it was. He asked me again, "Are you sure it isn't a payable-on-demand note?" I didn't know, and I didn't know Jim's address!

Barrington then said that the best thing to do was to get an inventory made as quickly as possible, and then try to get hold of Simpson and see if we couldn't adjust it with him.

"But," he said--and he looked at me very sternly--"if anything is done it will be purely because of his generosity or because of the fear we can instill into him. You are legally responsible for the $3500.00 and apparently it is payable on demand. How much is the farm worth on which you gave him a mortgage?"

I told him it was worth about $8,500.00.

"Hum," he said, and pursed his lips.

"Couldn't I deed it to Mother or somebody," I said, "and save it?"

He shook his head. "No, that wouldn't be legal," he said.

"How I wish I had come to you at first!" I said.

"Yes," he replied absentmindedly, "that's the trouble with many so-called business men. They never think of using a lawyer to keep them out of trouble, but come to them only after they have got into it!"

A salesman from Bates & Hotchkin came in the afternoon and said his firm had told him about my wanting an inventory taken and offered to stay with me till it was done.

"What will it cost?" I asked. My $1500.00 began to look very small to me then.

He smiled and shook his head, and said:

"It won't cost you anything. If we can be of service to you, we want to be."

I had also arranged for an accountant to go over the books. He was a Scotchman, named Jock McTavish, and he was to come the next morning.

Betty urged me to have him install a proper accounting system for me while he was on the job. I shook my head and said:

"There may not be anything worth putting an accounting system in for.

I've ruined my life and I've spoiled my chances of your--"

She put her hand over my mouth and said:

"Don't be silly! Now is the time to see if you have any manhood in you.

Anybody can talk big when everything goes right! No one ever made a success without having some failure. Don't you remember what Lord Beaconsfield said, when he was asked how he attained success?"

I shook my head gloomily.

"He said, 'By using my failures as stepping stones to success!'"

"Well," said I, "I've certainly one big stepping stone here."

"Quite right," said she, "then step up it like a man!"

A girl like Betty, I thought, was worth bucking up for! I just set my teeth and decided I would pull through the thing somehow!

I thought the worst had happened, but I found it hadn't. Herson, the salesman from Bates & Hotchkin, completed the inventory, the next day, with the a.s.sistance of the others in the store. I can't say I did much to help, for I was simply consumed with anxiety. All I did was to serve customers while it was going on, and that helped to keep me from worrying too much.

Herson came over to me when he finished the inventory and said:

"I'm afraid you are going to be sadly disappointed at the figures. I have put the goods in at their present valuation, as near as I can figure it, and I find that there are $8,100.00 worth."

"Then," said I, "I have lost over a thousand dollars on that stock--$1,360.00!"

"You surely have," said he.

"Well," I thought, "even so, there's a chance of recovering, and Betty is looking to me to make good and I must!"