"You think they would bring two thousand dollars under the hammer, if fairly sold?" "I hardly think they would bring that under the hammer." "A thousand or twelve hundred, then?" "O yes; readily." "Very well. I will lend you three hundred dollars on your note on demand. This will make me your creditor. You can then confess judgment on the note, and I will issue an execution and sell you out by the sheriff before any one else can get a judgment against you." "Sell me out by the sheriff!" exclaimed Malcolm, with a look of surprise. "What difference will that make, pray? It is this breaking up, root and branch, process that I wish to avoid." "That is just what I want to do for you. I wish to save you. You don't understand, I see, the nature of an amicable sale by the sheriff." "No, I certainly do not. Never having had anything to do with that gentleman, I am not familiar with all his proceedings." "I will explain. By the laws of this State no assignments of property for the benefit of particular creditors are legal. But by the same laws, the creditor who can first get out his execution sweeps off everything, provided his claim be as large as the proceeds of the property sold. This enables a debtor to give precedence to whomsoever he pleases by a confession of judgment. Of course there must be a sale of the property, but then it can be conducted in such a way as to attract very little attention. Leave the thing in my hands, and I will see that even your next door neighbor shall not know it. Of course, I do not mean to touch your property. My object is to secure you in its possession." "But there must be public advertisements and handbills?" said Malcolm. "I know. But the advertisement can be inserted in some country paper where no citizen will ever see it." "But the handbills? To make it legal they must be posted." "Granted. But the law doesn't specify the number. Two will answer." "It certainly requires them to be put up in public places." "Very well. The sheriff's office is a public place." "It can be seen there." "Not if the face be to the wall; or if some one pull it down in half a minute after it is put up. The law requires the bills to be put up, but doesn't say how long they shall remain up." "A bell will have to be rung, and a bill put up on the premises." "Yes. But the bell can be rung in the alley at the rear of your house. Or a few strokes of it made on the opposite side of the street, and no one be the wiser for it. As to the bill, the poster, who understands all this, will put it up a little after daylight, when there is no one in the street. Before he is out of sight it can be torn down by a person employed for the purpose. For fifteen or twenty dollars all this can be managed to a charm." "I never heard of this before," said Malcolm, opening his eyes with astonishment. "It is done every day," replied the lawyer. "The men about the sheriff's office understand it all perfectly."