"We can distinctly hear the bell ringing furiously. Do you not see
that your foot is still on it?"
"My foot!" exclaimed the bogus Mr. Armstrong, angrily. "Explain what you
mean at once."
For answer, the man stepped forward, and pulled aside the mat under his
employer's feet, mentally wondering if Mr. Lester Armstrong had not
grown suddenly daft himself, thereby disclosing a set of electric
buttons which the rug had cunningly concealed.
"You kept your foot on them and they rang, calling us here instantly,"
returned the man.
"Bless me! I forgot entirely about those confounded electric buttons,"
declared the bogus Armstrong, turning very red. "I'll have 'em put
somewhere else to-morrow; great nuisance; always in the way." And after
an instant a bright thought occurred to him, and he said blandly: "Well,
to tell you the truth, men, I was only trying you to see how quickly you
would respond; you may all go now."
The men quitted the private office, looking rather dumfounded into each
other's blank faces, and in less than half an hour afterward every
employee in the vast dry goods establishment heard the shocking news,
that Mr.
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