June 28 Wednesday – Charles Webster reported to Sam that Frank Bliss had agreed to allow an auditor to examine the records of the American Publishing Co. Sam felt he’d been cheated out of thousands by inaccurate reporting of book sales [MTNJ 2: 496n209].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam “glad to hear that Jean is better.” He settled for $500 from Sam for Co. expenses. He wrote about making Bliss mad, refusing to send a statement, telling Webster if he wanted on to come up and the books were open. “I think now we will bring this matter to a head soon & know where the leak is & see if we can get the books away from him” [MTP]. Note: it had been Clemens’ plan for some time to wrest the rights to his old books from the Am. Pub. Co.