"I've another four years to serve to get my pension. It could be made to
look very black against me and don't you make any mistake about it," he
says.
"And all the time with one knee well up he went on swinging his other leg
like a boy on a gate and looking at me very straight with his shining
eyes. I was confounded I tell you. It made me sick to hear him imply
that somebody would make a report against him.
"Oh!" I asked shocked, "who would think of such a scurvy trick, sir?" I
was half disgusted with him for having the mere notion of it.
"Who?" says he, speaking very low. "Anybody. One of the office
messengers maybe. I've risen to be the Senior of this office and we are
all very good friends here, but don't you think that my colleague that
sits next to me wouldn't like to go up to this desk by the window four
years in advance of the regulation time? Or even one year for that
matter. It's human nature."
"I could not help turning my head. The three fellows who had been
skylarking when I came in were now talking together very soberly, and the
long-necked chap was going on with his writing still.
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