Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/179

Rh president of the Octagon Coal Company, as I have said, and reside in the city of Philadelphia, where I have been engaged in active business for several years. My life beyond that time cannot be a matter of any special importance. I may add, however, that I had been engaged with a foreign company as a fire insurance adjuster for the State of Illinois for some years before coming to the East. It was while acting as an adjuster of losses that I first met with Brown Hirst.

“An unusually large fire occurred in one of the suburban towns near Chicago, destroying almost an entire block, and I was sent out by my company to adjust the loss. Upon my arrival in the town I found what I believed to be evidence of a gigantic fraud. The block had been leased for a year by one John Hall for the purpose of doing a mammoth general business with a great number of different departments, and almost before Hall had opened his doors to the public this fire occurred. There was no explanation of how the fire originated. When first noticed by the police, about three o'clock in the morning, the build-