" But why did I call up my lawyers to ask
them about it? It's a mystery to me. All I know is that, busy as I was,
something inside me compelled me to drop everything else and hunt that
"joker" down.
I got Saxe--then senior partner in Browne, Saxe and Einstein--on the
'phone, and said: "Just see and tell me, will you, what is the 'bill
defining the power of sundry commissions'--the bill the governor signed
yesterday?"
"Certainly, Mr. Blacklock," came the answer. My nerves are, and always have
been, on the watchout for the looks and the tones and the gestures that are
just a shade off the natural; and I feel that I do Saxe no injustice when I
say his tone was, not a shade, but a full color, off the natural. So I was
prepared for what he said when he returned to the telephone. "I'm sorry,
Mr. Blacklock, but we seem unable to lay our hands on that bill at this
moment."
"Why not?" said I, in the tone that makes an employee jump as if a
whip-lash had cut him on the calves.
He had jumped all right, as his voice showed. "It's not in our file," said
he. "It's House Bill No. 427, and it's apparently not here."
"The hell you say!" I exclaimed. "Why?"
"I really can't explain," he pleaded, and the frightened whine confirmed my
suspicion.
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