when a sudden knock on the door made him jump. He spilled the hot
water on his leg, and uttered a wild yell.

Mrs. Purp burst in, but she was so excited that she did not
notice the egg seeping into the clean counterpane.

"Oh, Mr. Gissing," she exclaimed, "I've been waiting all evening
for you to come in. Purp and I wondered if you'd seen this in the
paper to-night? Purp noticed it in the ads., but we couldn't
understand what it meant."

She held out a page of classified advertising, in which he read
with amazement:

PERSONAL

If MR. GISSING, late floorwalker at Beagle and Company, will
communicate with Mr. Beagle Senior, he will hear matters greatly
to his advantage.



CHAPTER NINE

There had been great excitement in the private offices of Beagle
and Company after Gissing's sudden disappearance. Old Mr. Beagle
was furious, and hotly scolded his son. In spite of his advanced
age, Beagle senior was still an autocrat and insisted on
regulating the details of the great business he had built up.
"You numbskull!" he shouted to Beagle junior, "that fellow was