 | CHAPTER IV. Ellen Hart |  |
4. CHAPTER IV.
After the Junior Partner had placed the
papers which he had taken from the drawer,
before Mr. Hart, he fixed a steady look upon
his face for an instant and then said, in an
under tone,
`By reading these you will see the outline
of my plan of operations, Mr. Hart.'
`What is this?' exclaimed the merchant
taking up one of the slips and intently regarding
it. `A note for ten thousand dollars
signed by Dr. Elmore and made payable to
me! I have not had any transactions with
Dr. Elmore, at least money transactions for
several years.'
`Very probable,' answered Creech dryly;
`nevertheless here is his note for ten thousand
dollars.'
`How did you come by it?' demanded Mr.
Hart with surprise, after carefully examining
it, and satisfying himself that it was all in
form.
`I will explain that in a moment. Be so
kind as to glance at the three other pieces of
paper, sir.'
`Another note drawn by Dr. Elmore in favor
of our Firm for ten thousand dollars! One
for eight thousand drawn by Robert Stebbins,
late of the House of Appleton & Co? What
means all this, Mr. Creech?' cried Mr. Hart,
a momentary suspicion arising to his mind.
`That these notes only require our endorsement
and that of another House to be discounted.
You see one is for 60 days—one for
90, and the other two at four months. Ample
time for all our purposes.'
`Mr. Creech,' exclaimed the merchant
rising to his feet and speaking with indignant
emotion, `those four notes are forged. The
names are forgeries, sir! How dare you lay
such paper before me, and have the audacity
to demand my endorsement of the Firm.'
`They are forgeries, Mr. Hart,' replied the
Junior Partner calmly.
`And you contess it. Sir, with these evidences
of your guilt in my possession,' he
cried, grasping the notes firmly and closely
within his hand, `I no longer fear you. You
are in my power, not I in yours! This moment
consent to my wishes that all be at once
stopped where it is, or I will with these in my
hands, have you arrested.'
The Junior Partner remained perfectly composed
in look and manner, during the utterance
of his threat. Mr. Hart was surprised,
and seeing a smile at the corner of his mouth,
a misgiving came over him.
`You do not speak, sir.'
`I have nothing to say, Mr. Hart. If you
object to this step I am very sorry to have displeased
you by suggesting it. But as you
had once before made use of Mr. Stebbin's
name, in a similar manner, I was not prepared
for so decided a refusal.'
The merchant turned pale. He hung his
head in silent shame, not unmixed with alarm.
An act committed three years before, and
which he supposed unknown to every human
being, was not a secret to his Junior Partner.
He felt that he was indeed in his power. But
his vexation and alarm were not greater than
his astonishment at Creech's knowledge of
the fact to which he had alluded. He saw
now that there was no further use in struggling
against the current, to which in an evil
hour he had committed himself, and that he
had opened before him for the future, a way
of guilt and crime he shuddered to contemplate.
He sat a few moments wholly overcome,
and with a countenance wearing the
pallor of the sepulchre. Large drops of sweat
stood upon his forehead and his nether lip was
tremulous with emotion. Creech stood observing
him with a look of malicious triumph.
At length the merchant spoke but without
looking up,
`I see, Mr. Creech, we have nothing to reproach
one another with. I was not aware
you knew this first wrong act of my mercantile
life. May I ask you how a circumstance
became known to you, which I believed was
a secret locked in my own breast?'
`I learned it from Mr. Stebbens himself.'
`From himself! Impossible! Could he have
known my use of his name, and suffered it to
pass.'
`No. I was well aware of your embarrassment
at the time, being your first Clerk; indeed
you made no secret of it to me, and wondered
where you could possibly obtain the
$12,000 you required, without impairing your
credit. The next day you handed me Mr.
Stebbins' note to take to the Bank for discount.
It was discounted and you received the money,
but I had at the time no suspicion that it was
a forgery.'
`And how did you discover it?' asked Mr.
Hart, throwing off some of his habitual reserve.
`In this way. A few days before it became
due I was in the bank. Mr. Stebbins himself
stood talking with another gentleman near
the Cashier. He was speaking of endorsing
in a manner that led me to suppose he had just
declined letting the gentleman have his name.
`I have not,' he said, `put my name to paper
in any shape for the last three months, and
shall not give it again to go into the bank. It
is on some paper of old date and I shall not
renew it at maturity. I have recently refused
Henry Hart and others.' `Your note bearing
Mr. Stebbins' signature I recollected had
been dated within forty days, and his remark
that he had refused you led me to suspect that
you had forged his name!'
Mr. Hart started and colored at the blunt
mode in which Mr. Creech spoke the words.
But he remained silent.
`This suspicion led me to examine the note
while in the hands of the bank, and I was
strengthened in my suspicion. But a singular
circumstance removed it beyond all doubt.'
`And what was this?' eagerly questioned
Mr. Hart, in a tone of the deepest surprise.
`The next day I was looking over your
porter's order upon, when on one of the leaves
of the blotting paper I saw writing very boldly
impressed. It was inverted and reversed, and
I took out my pocket mirror to reflect it so
that I could read it; a thing that is often done
successfully. There has been many a secret
betrayed by blotting paper. To my surprise
I saw it was the form of Mr. Stebbins' note,
and his signature beneath it, all as clearly
legible as the original writing. It showed me
at once that the note and signature were written
at the same time and dried together. I
knew Mr. Sebbins had not been in the Countring-room;
besides you had told me when you
brought me the note that he had signed it at
his house! Here is the blotting paper,' added
Creech, going and taking it from his private
drawer and exhibiting it to him, though careful
not to let him have in his possession so
powerful an instrument over his fears.
`I find I have nothing to conceal from you,
Mr. Creech. But, if you have so long possessed
this secret why did you not before avail
yourself of it for your own interests!'
`I was waiting my time.'
`And you have entrusted it to no one!'
`No, sir. Are you now ready, Mr. Hart, to
act with me and fully sustain me in my plans.'
`It is a risk; but I am in your power.'
`We must go on for our mutual safety.
Besides we must have ready money. These
notes before you on their receiving your endorsement
will at once be negotiated.'
`Your endorsement for the Firm will answer
equally well, Mr. Creech,' he said putting
aside the pen filled with ink, proffered to him
by his Junior Partner.
`Your hand-writing would inspire more
confidence in the bank than mine, Mr. Hart.'
`Very well. Are you sure we are alone?'
he said looking round with suspicion and
alarm.
`Quite so,' answered Creech, going to the
door and trying the lock, and then returning
to the table.
`How shall we provide for these notes, Mr.
Creech?' asked the fallen merchant, `before
they are due. The bank must not have time
to send notices to these persons whose names
we borrow.
`They will be provided for by other notes
drawn up in the same manner. In this way
we can carry on the business of the Firm and
sustain the credit of the House. You can
support your family in the style in which they
now live; and I shall be able to live in a better
style than I have done as a clerk—perhaps
take a wife,' added the Junior Partner facetiously.
`This is a dangerous business, but I see no
remedy,' answered Mr. Hart, taking the pen
Creech still held out.
With a tremulous hand the merchant endorsed
one after another the notes with the
name of the Firm to which three were made
payable, the fourth being drawn in favor of
himself individually. He hesitated a moment
before he wrote his name on this, and after
doing so flung down the pen and covered his
face with his hands. Mr. Creech took up the
notes.
For God's sake do not dry the names with
blotting paper!' suddenly cried Mr. Hart.
`I always use sand, sir. I never leave inverted
copies of notes and letters for Clerk's
to read with looking glasses.'
The notes were duly presented to the bank
and discounted, for better names than they
bore were not desired by the Directors. The
credit of the Firm of Hart and Creech was
sustained by the money thus obtained; and
Mr. Hart continued to live in his usual style;
and Mr. Creech took board at the most fashionable
hotel, and kept a horse and buggy and
was altogether very magnificent. He enjoyed
himself, for he had no conscience. But
Mr. Hart carried about with him a heavy
spirit and a clouded brow. On `Change men
gave his great business the credit for it, supposing
it required much and constant thought.
His wife discovered the change in him, but
to all her solicitous inquiries he returned
vague and brief replies. This silence deeply
afflicted her, and foreboding of evil depressed
her. His children felt the change in his
manner and tone of voice and shunned rather
than flew to him. Thus those whom he had
sacrificed every thing to make happy were in
all their outward prosperity made wretched
by him. Happiness was never yet the fruit
of guilt. It bears sorrow ever, and forever
sorrow will follow it. There are moral laws
and necessities as well as physical; and the
results of each are irresistably produced from
causes equally apparent. On the other hand
good will as certainly produce happiness and
peace. Evil never came of a good act, was
He who seeks a good by an evil way is sure
to be disappointed; not only in not attaining
the good he pursues, but in obtaining an evil
he did not expect.
These reflections passed through the mind
of Mr. Hart as he looked around him and saw
the untoward fruits of his iniquity. But like
a man whom error has made both weak and
blind he went forward anticipating every
hour when he should plunge into the gulf that
he saw yawned to receive him.
At length the time came he had looked forward
to in sleepless nights and wretched days.
The three notes had been taken up by Creech,
by means of notes with the same names, negotiated
a day or two before at other banks.
There remained but one more due, and this
was one of those forged on Dr. Elmore for
$10,000. Mr. Creech with his usual foresight
had made arrangements to provide for it,
by drawing another note and forging the name,
presenting it to Mr. Hart for his signature,
who without a word always endorsed whatever
was offered to him by the Junior Partner.
This new note, however, met with quite an
unlooked for fate. Creech had offered it the
day before discount-day at the Bank so that
the funds could be drawn in time to meet the
other, which would be at maturity the next
week. But it so chanced that on the morning
of the day of discounting it was discovered
that the Bank had been broken open, the
books mutilated, a large amount of money taken,
and the papers of the Bank thrown, as if
by design, into the most inextricable confusion.
The Directors, therefore, transacted no
business, and the note lay over with others till
the next discount day. But this would be too
late to use the money and Creech withdrew
the note, and set his wits to work what to do.
He thought of going to a broker with the paper,
but he feared that Dr. Elmore might possibly
hear of his name being used on the
street and that a discovery would then be
inevitable.
The day of taking up the matured note at
length arrived and nothing had been done.
Every resource had failed them. The Junior
Partner could not resort to another expedient.
Mr. Hart, who, inspired by the near danger,
had greatly exerted himself, was almost in
despair. A protest would surely lead to a
detection of the forgery.
`We must try a broker, sir,' said Creech,
as the hand of the counting-house clock pointed
silently to one o'clock. `There is but little
time.'
`We must run this risk,' answered the merchant
with an accent and look of calm desperation.
Mr. Creech took up his hat and
left the counting-room.
In a half an hour Creech re-entered with a
smiling face.
`It is done. Here are nine thousand and
nine hundred dollars. You have a hundred
in the safe.'
`Who did it?'
`W —.'
`Did he question you?'
`No. I told him of the cause, the robbery
of the bank. He was satisfied.'
`If it can be kept from Dr. Elmore.'
`I think there is no fear. Indeed I told
W — not to let it be known he had done it
to the Dr., as he might not like to have a note
given for discount in bank, negotiated by a
broker.'
`I will go to the bank with the money and
take up the note myself,' answerd Mr. Hart.
As he spoke he took possession of the bank
notes and left the counting-room.
| CHAPTER IV. Ellen Hart | |