overwhelmed the audacious evil-doer; but without producing any visible result. Isaac was very undecided that evening, whether or no to give the culprit a chance of compromising himself by repeating his crime; but anxiety for the safety of the books prevailed, and having, with his own hands, placed them in the safe, he took the key into his keeping, and left them for the night. By next morning, Isaac had reasoned himself into the belief that the audacious mischief had been a sudden outburst of boyish waywardness, a sharp tempation begotten of opportunity; and congratulating himself upon his decision to make all safe the night before, he resolved to correct the error which marred the perfection of his handiwork, and if he could not forget or forgive the outrage, at all events to trust to chance for the discovery of its perpetrator: and so did he please his fancy by the thought of the crushing exhortation which he would in such case bestow, that he went to his daily work in a comparatively equable and cheerful frame of mind. Miserable man! No sooner had his eye glanced at the symmetrical columns of the cash-book, than he perceived that the same busy hand had again been at work, and this time to a greater extent than before; numerous falsifications forced themselves on his bewildered vision executed with diabolical ingenuity, both as to the mode and style of the fraud: threes were changed into fives, ones into fours, cyphers into sixes and nines, and all in exact imitation of his own hand-writing; he was forced to admit that had his senses not borne witness to the contrary, he should have had to confess his own handiwork. The matter was now indeed serious: no one had access by fair means to the books but himself; could it possibly be, thought Isaac, in his anguish, that the fiend was permitted to chastise his pride of accuracy in this fearful manner? A cold sweat bathed his face at the thought. If done by mortal agency, however, what was the object of alterations which appeared to make him responsible for less money than he had really in his custody? it must plainly be that the money itself would next be by some means abstracted, and he, accused of the fraud, would be confronted by the altered books. And then—what then? Isaac couldn’t follow the train of thought further. He would find out this villainous plotter; he would conceal himself in the counting-house that night without naming the matter to a soul, and then he would see. So said, so done: after remaining working by himself till late, he went as usual to his own room, but instead of going to bed, slipped noiselessly down stairs with the key of the safe in his pocket, and took up his position behind a desk, where by a little management he could command a view of the whole room. Here he remained undisturbed, save by the ticking of the office clock, by fancied noises now and then, and by his own agitating thoughts. Chilled to the bone, obliged to remain in the dark, and perhaps a little frightened, he nevertheless sat bravely on, hearing the hours strike one after another, and every now and then taking a stealthy walk to keep himself awake; so passed time and the hour until the old church clock, just outside, boomed high in air—five. Glad to find his vigil so nearly over, and triumphant, though rather disappointed at finding himself no nearer a solution of the mystery, Isaac sat down on his own stool. and presently finding his head bump against the desk before him, was forced to conclude that he had been asleep, and so it proved; for on striking a match and consulting the clock, it showed a few minutes before six to be the time.
“Not quite an hour, at all events,” said Isaac, slapping his pocket to feel for the safe key; and rather put out at his failure in watchfulness. “And everything is quite still. No one can have been in that time; I should have been sure to wake. Well, the men will be here at six, and then I shall get to bed. I wish the scamp had come though, I shall have to watch again.”
At six, accordingly, Isaac was released, and went to make up for his night’s watch, but was at his place in the office very little later than his usual hour.
“Shall I tell Reuben Barlow, or not?” soliloquised he, as he unlocked the safe. “He’ll be back to-day, and it would be as well to do so.”
But on second thoughts he determined that it would be better to discover the plotter before speaking to any one.
“And, at all events,” said he to himself. “I can keep matters from getting worse for a few days, and by that time, perhaps—”
Isaac gave a deep groan, and well he might. In spite of watch and ward the enemy had been at work; the entries left yesternight in such order and symmetry were caricatured and travestied out of all shape, figure after figure having been perverted, altered, and inserted.
“It must have been in the room with me last night,” thought poor Isaac, and in another minute the clerks were alarmed by hearing a loud thump, and on entering Isaac’s office by finding its occupant on the floor insensible; for the first time in his life he had fainted. On coming to himself, however, he repelled all inquiry and advice.
“Nothing was the matter with him, he had slipped in getting on to his stool,” he said, “and fallen.” He closed the open cash-book sharply, and with a suspicious glance at those around him, and bidding them all rather ungraciously get to their work and leave him, he sat down to try and think calmly over the matter, it was in vain, and by the time Reuben Barlow returned, Isaac had pretty nearly worked himself into a fever. Informed of Isaac’s fainting fit, Reuben, nevertheless, said nothing on the point at first, beginning quietly to talk about indifferent subjects; but so dispirited and short were Isaac’s replies that at last he said:—
“I fear thou’rt not well to-day, Isaac?”
“What, I suppose you’ve been hearing some nonsense or other in the office since you came in, but there’s nothing the matter with me.”
“Well,” replied Reuben. “Seeing that thou’rt not in the habit of lying on thy back on the floor, thou mustn’t be surprised at what’s said, when thou begins to do so,” and observing that Isaac was indisposed for further parley, Reuben left him. Towards the close of business, however, he again visited him, and seeing him poring over the cash-book:—
