These six sheets, each headed by a canvasser's name, were
evidently the record of current collections, and the innocence of the
whole thing was so apparent that if it were not for my fixed rule
never to believe that I am at the bottom of any case until I have come
on something suspicious, I would have gone out empty-handed as I came
in.
The six sheets were loose in a thin portfolio, but standing on a shelf
above the desk were a number of fat volumes, one of which I took down,
and saw that it contained similar lists running back several years. I
noticed on Mr. Macpherson's current list the name of Lord Semptam, an
eccentric old nobleman whom I knew slightly. Then turning to the list
immediately before the current one the name was still there; I traced
it back through list after list until I found the first entry, which
was no less than three years previous, and there Lord Semptam was down
for a piece of furniture costing fifty pounds, and on that account he
had paid a pound a week for more than three years, totalling a hundred
and seventy pounds at the least, and instantly the glorious simplicity
of the scheme dawned upon me, and I became so interested in the
swindle that I lit the gas, fearing my little lamp would be exhausted
before my investigation ended, for it promised to be a long one.
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