But a greater surprise awaited him. It revealed an example of the tremendous thoroughness and immense detail that were the pride of the Teuton bureaucracy. Deming was taken off his feet. The chief held up a little battered sheet.
"Have you always paid your bills in Germany?"
"Yes, I have, sir," returned Jim, wondering at this strange turn, but fully sure of himself on this ground.
"Untruth. Why did you not pay for three candles left in your room at Karlsruhe? Here is the unreceipted slip."
"Because I did not use them. I did not want them. I left them on the mantel."
"And here is a balance due on your laundry bill at Hamburg--twelve cents--unpaid. How do you explain that?" A torn and dirty washing schedule was handed down to him to refresh his memory.
"I didn't know I owed any balance," argued Jim to his spokesman. "Tell him it was not presented to me. Tell him I will be only too glad to pay anything I owe. I always pay what I owe." The examiner gingerly took up a crumpled napkin, brown from an overturned _demi-tasse_.
"August sixteenth, you spilled coffee on your napkin at lunch--half-past twelve. And you went away from the Hotel Bellevue--Bavaria--without making it good. What have you to say to that?" The sorry cloth was held up contemptuously for Jim's inspection and for the edification of the duly pained official audience, most of whom, however, doubtless made no use of such an article in their daily lives.
"I never heard anything about it!" cried Deming. "In my country such things are thrown in. Nothing said about them. But tell him I'll pay it--I'll pay anything--everything. How much is it?"
"What is the total?" And Jim began digging in his pockets while holding up his head testily. He had never before been accused of hotel-beating. But payment did not yet appear to be in order. He stared at the mass of files and papers before his cross-questioner. He realized that his whole record in Germany lay there. The Imperial Service had traced him like bloodhounds. Due to his frequent irritated displays of proud American independence on his tour, the bill of small grievances, now accumulated, no doubt assumed troublesome proportions when exposed in its formidable length. Three hours had been consumed, accounted for in part by the necessity of an interpreter. As meal time was at hand Deming was commanded to appear the next morning at nine to have his testimony taken at length.