At a quarter to four we were ready to strike a balance. Al, with the result of his half of the figuring (with which John's counter-book should agree), stood peering over the little man's shoulder. Bill, by force of habit mainly (for he looked forlorn enough), was behind John on the other side. Ted and I pressed up close, too; and Mr. Young sat at his table quietly, watching the group of us. At these times John was generally very nervous; and frequently the mere consciousness of having all of us at his back flustered him so that he could not make his last deduction correctly. But his hour of triumph was now at hand, and he knew it and rose manfully to the occasion. He worked imperturbably and without the slightest trace of annoyance; nor was there the least hesitancy in the rapid tappings of his pen; and he made his footings with a decision which showed how thoroughly confident he was of the correctness of his calculations. When he was done he said, "All right, Al. How is it?" and Al read off his balance. John jotted it down in pencil beside his own, and subtracted. "847.43," he said. "Over?" asked the cashier from his table. "No; short, George," and without waiting to prove his own work, John jumped over to Bill's clearing-books, and began footing them. Bill and Ted and Al (Bill in front) pounced on John's book; but they had barely time to put pencil to it before John cried out: "Seven less on the credit!" and Bill had the pleasure of correcting his own mistake on John's book. [Illustration: He knew perfectly, poor fellow, his incompetence.—Page 449.] "Footing?" he queried, moodily. "Yes," said John, without looking up, as he ran his pencil down another row of figures. "Seven cents on the 'first' footing," he called again, almost immediately. "More on the credit this time, Bill. Makes it just 850.50, doesn't it?" Bill, however, did not answer, but edged out between Ted and Al, and went to work on his own pass-books, errors in which did not appear "in cash." Then John called to me to check the listing while he read off the clearings. Here, again, we found two mistakes, an inversion and another, which reduced the discrepancy to about fifty dollars. This time John did not announce the mistake (for, with his growing assurance, all desire for public vindication and acquittal had left him), but went and "fixed" it himself. Ted and Al had, long since, given up the search at the counter; and the latter, who was entering into the fun of the moment, cried laughingly, after going over my draft-registers, "All right, Jim!" and then to Mr. Young, "Bill didn't take your bet, did he, George?" "No," laughed the cashier in his turn, and added, "Better help us on 'cash,' Bill. Your books will wait." Bill, crestfallen, marched over to his clearing-books, and gazed sheepishly at the corrections on them in John's handwriting.