"It would," said the Bald Impostor.
"Which is fair and proper," said Philo Gubb, "but the old gent
wouldn't pay it. So I ask you if you'd be kindly willing to go to him
along with me in company and tell him I charged right and according to
rates as low as possible?"
"Of course I will go," said the Bald Impostor.
"All right!" said Philo Gubb, rising. "And the old gent is a man
you'll be glad to meet. He's a prominent citizen gentleman of the
town. His name is Judge Orley Morvis."
The Bald Impostor gasped. Every free-acting pore on his head worked
immediately.
"And, so he won't suspicion that I'm running in some outsider on him,"
said Philo Gubb, "I'll fetch along this letter you wrote me, to
certify your identical identity."
He picked up the warning letter from the Rising Sun Agency, and stood
waiting for the Bald Impostor to arise. But the Bald Impostor did not
arise. For once at least he was flabbergasted. He opened and shut his
mouth, like a fish out of water. His head seemed to exude millions of
moist beads. He saw a smile of triumph on Philo Gubb's face. Mr. Gubb
was smiling triumphantly because he was able now to show Judge Orley
Morvis a thing or two, but the Bald Impostor was sure Philo Gubb knew
he was the Bald Impostor. He was caught and he knew it. So he
surrendered.
"All right!" he said nervously. "You've got me. I won't give you any
trouble."
"It's me that's being a troubling nuisance to you, Mr. Burns," said
Philo Gubb.
The paper-hanger detective stopped short. A look of shame passed
across his face.
"I hope you will humbly pardon me, Mr. Burns," he said contritely. "I
am ashamed of myself. To think of me starting to get you to attend to
my business when prob'ly you have business much more important that
fetched you to Riverbank."
A sudden light seemed to break upon Philo Gubb.
"Of a certain course!" he exclaimed. "What you come about was
this--this"--he looked at the letter in his hand--"this Bald Impostor,
wasn't it?"
Philo Gubb's visitor, who had begun to breathe normally again, gasped
like a fish once more. He saw Philo Gubb finish reading the
description of the Bald Impostor, and then Philo Gubb looked up and
looked the Bald Impostor full in the face. He looked the Bald Impostor
over, from bald spot to shoes, and looked back again at the
description. Item by item he compared the description in the letter
with the appearance of the man before him, while the Impostor
continued to wipe the palms of his hands with the balled handkerchief.
At last Philo Gubb nodded his head.
"Exactly similar to the most nominal respects," he said. "Quite
identical in every shape and manner."
"Oh, I admit it! I admit it!" said the Bald Impostor hopelessly.
"Yes, sir!" said Philo Gubb. "And I admit it the whilst I admire it.
It is the most perfect disguise of an imitation I ever looked at."
"What?" asked the Bald Impostor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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