When he was a boy of two, his sister, a girl of six, had let him drop to the sidewalk, and he had never since straightened his back.

The customary outlets by which fully equipped men earn their living having been denied Tim, he had passed his boyhood days in one of the small, down-town libraries cataloguing the books.

With this came the opportunity to attend the auction sales when some rare volume was to be bid for, he representing the library.

A small shop of his own followed in the lower part of the town, and then the one a little below Kling's, where he lived alone with only a caretaker to look after his wants.
Kelsey had arrived one morning shortly after Felix had entered Kling's service, carrying a heavily bound book which he laid on a glass case under Otto's nose.

"Take a look at it, Otto," he said, after pausing a moment to get his breath, the volume being heavy.