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On the next day, he went again to the office of his legal adviser, and was received very kindly by that individual.

“I am sure, Mr. Dockett,” he said, after he was seated, speaking in a soft, insinuating tone of voice, “that you can now remember the little fact of which I spoke yesterday.”

But Mr. Dockett shook his head, and answered, “You have made some mistake, Mr. Hardy. No such sum of money was ever intrusted to me.”

“Perhaps,” said Hardy, after thinking for a few minutes, “I may have been in error in regard to the amount of money contained in the package. Can’t you remember having received five thousand dollars from me? Think now!”

The lawyer thought for a little while, and then shook his head.

“No, I have not the slightest recollection of having received such a sum of money from you.”

“The package may only have contained four thousand dollars,” said Mr. Hardy, driven to this desperate expedient in the hope of inducing the lawyer to share the plunder of the creditors.

But Mr. Dockett again shook his head.

“Say, then, I gave you but three thousand dollars.”

“No,” was the emphatic answer.

“But I am sure you will remember having received two thousand dollars from my hand.”

“No, nor one thousand, nor one hundred,” replied the lawyer positively.

“Mr. Dockett, you are a knave!” exclaimed the client, springing to his feet and shaking his clenched fists at the lawyer.

“And you are both a knave, and a fool,” sneeringly replied Mr. Dockett.

Hardy, maddened to desperation, uttered a threat of personal violence, and advanced upon the lawyer.

But the latter was prepared for him, and, before the excited client had approached three paces, there was heard a sharp click; and at the same moment, the six dark barrels of a “revolver” became visible. While Mr. Dockett thus coolly held his assailant at bay, he addressed him in this wise:

“Mr. Hardy, from what you have just said, it is clear that you have been playing a swindling game with your creditors, and stained your soul with perjury into the bargain!–Now, if you do not leave my office instantly, I will put your case in the hands of the Grand Jury, at present in session, and let you take your chance for the State prison on the charge of false swearing!”

Mr. Hardy became instantly as quiet as a lamb. For a few moments, he looked at the lawyer in bewildered astonishment, and then, turning away, left his office, in a state of mind more easily imagined than described.

Subsequently, he tried, at various times and on various occasions, to refresh the memory of Mr. Dockett on the subject of the seven thousand dollars, but the lawyer remained entirely oblivious, and to this day has not been able to recall a single incident attending the alleged transfer.

Mr. Dockett has, without doubt, a shocking bad memory.