THE GREAT BEEF CONTRACT. 23
business. He examined his books and all his loose
papers, but found no minute of the beef contract.
I went to the Second Comptroller of the Corn-Beef
Division. He examined his books and his loose
papers, but with no success. I was encouraged.
During that week I got as far as the Sixth Comp¬
troller in that division; the next week I got through
the Claims Department; the third week I began
and completed the Mislaid Contracts Department,
and got a foothold in the Dead Reckoning Depart¬
ment. I finished that in three days. There was
only one place left for it now. I laid siege to the
Commissioner of Odds and Ends. To his clerk,
rather—he was not there himself. There were
sixteen beautiful young ladies in the room, writing
in books, and there were seven well-favoured young
clerks showing them how. The young women
smiled up over their shoulders, and the clerks
smiled back at them, and all went merry as a
marriage bell. Two or three clerks that were
reading the newspapers looked at me rather hard,
but went on reading, and nobody said anything.
However, I had been used to this kind of alacrity
from Fourth-Assistant-Junior Clerks all through
my eventful career, from the very day I entered
the first office of the Corn-Beef Bureau clear till I
passed out of the last one in the Dead Reckoning
Division. I had got so accomplished by this time
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