 | CHAPTER VII. Ellen Hart |  |
7. CHAPTER VII.
`I am anticipated, I see gentlemen,' said
the Junior partner, speaking with extraordinary
assurance, and walking up to the bank
counter.
`Anticipated? How do you mean, sir?'
asked Dr. Elmore, fixing his eyes upon him
sternly, while the others waited the result
with curiosity and impatience.
`A sad affair; very!' responded the Junior
Partner shaking his head and glancing out of
his eye towards Mr. Hart, and then looking
confidently round upon the faces of others.
`I was in hopes to be here in time to prevent
an exposure; but I see it is all out. I would
have saved the credit of the house if I could.
But it is too late, I see! Very sad affair, gentlemen!
Pray how did you discover it?'—
Here the fluent Junoir Partner glanced his
eyes at the Cashier.
`If you speak of these forged notes, Mr.
Creech,' answered the Cashier, `the one held
by the bank was unpaid at the hour due; and
Dr. Elmore being near the notary spoke to
him about it before protesting it.'
`And you pronounced it a forgery, sir,' inquired
Mr. Creech, turning full upon Dr. Elmore
and addressing this gentleman with a
countenance filled with well conceived indignation
at the forgery.
`Yes, sir,' answered Dr. Elmore, perfectly
surprised at the new position affairs seemed to
be tending to.
`You did perfectly right, sir, perfectly right.
I only regret, for the credit of the Firm, that I
did not learn the forgery sooner. As soon as
I discovered it I hastened at once to the bank
to lift the note. But I see it is too late gentlemen.'
`And you have only just discovered the note
to be a forgery, sir?' demanded Dr. Elmore,
showing him the note.
`Not ten minutes ago. It was by a mere
accident. A singular accident, very! You
must know, gentlemen, we have been a little
oftener than was safe. Well, you
see gentlemen, this morning we had this note
to pay, a note Mr. Cashier, I presented two
months since for discount. You recollect it
no doubt, that it was I that presented it, and
that I also drew the money.'
`Yes, sir,' answered the Cashier, his confidence
in the integrity of Mr. Creech greatly
increased by the other's open, can did manner.
`Well, I did not know up to eleven o'clock
how we should meet this note. I knew all our
funds were invested. I asked Mr. Hart what
should be done? He made no reply; but
went out into his counting room. From his
gloomy looks, I was confident, gentlemen,
that he had made no provision to meet the
note. I trembled, I assure you for the credit
of the House of Hart & Creech. I did, I
assure you, gentlemen! A Protest, a Pistol!
That's my creed, gentlemen! I am too honorable
to survive a protest!' Here the Junior
Partner laid his hand over his heart and looked
round to receive the silent admiration he
felt they could not withold from a man who so
carefully regarded his honor.
`Well, gentlemen, I walked the store, thinking
for about ten minutes, and then I went
into the counting-room determined to know
what was to be done. Said I, `Mr. Hart, if
you have made no provision to meet Dr. Elmore's
note due to-day, why have you not let
me know sooner, so that I could look after it.
I entrusted it to you. He smiled and said to
me, `Mr. Creech, you can do so with entire
confidence. What is the amount of the note
due to-day?' `It is ten thousand dollars,'
said I.
`There is a note for the amount drawn by
the same name. Take it to W — and get
the money. The balance for the discount
will be found in the safe. Did you not say
so, Mr. Hart?'
Abruptly challenged in this manner, and
wholly confounded and overwhelmed by the
statement of Creech, Mr. Hart (who it will be
remembered said these very words to him) remained
silent.
`I ask you, sir, did you not say these words
to me?'
`You are a villain, sir,' replied Mr. Hart,
looking ghastly and shaking his trembling fist
at him.
Creech smiled scornfully and looked round
in triumph.
`You see, gentlemen, he does not deny it.'
In the opinion of all present, Henry Hart
was the criminal. Mr. Creech was looked
upon as an honest man. Mr. Hart felt the
dark looks of all upon him and hung his head.
The boldness of his Junior Partner overwhelmed
him. He sat as if a spell was upon
him. Mr. Creech then continued,
`He gave me the note, gentlemen, and I
went out to negotiate it. I took it to you, Mr.
W —. You discounted it for me. I returned
with the money to the counting-room—'
`A moment, if you please, sir,' said Dr. Elmore.
`Certainly, sir,' answered the Junior Partner,
bowing with easy and condescending politeness.
`Do I understand you that this was the second
note bearing my signature for the sum
of ten thousand dollars; which you got discounted?'
`Yes, sir. The first here at the bank; and
the second to day with Mr. W —.'
`And had you no suspicion that either of
the notes were forged?'
`None whatever, sir! I feel I ought to regard
such a question as an insult, sir. But I
pardon it. When one's name is forged, there
is an excuse for unguarded words.'
`I meant no offence, Mr. Creech.'
`I have taken none, sir.'
`Go on if you please, will you?' exclaimed
the broker impatiently grinding his teeth together
and darting savage glances towards
Mr. Hart, who felt that any efforts of his owu
towards arresting the tide of feeling in
Creech's favor and against himself would be
unavailing.
`I placed the money in Mr. Hart's hands,
who I saw was very solicitous to take up the
note in person. I could not account for it
then. It is now very plain. He left the counting-house
a little before close of bank hours,
and said he was going to the bank to take up
the note. Half an hour afterwards I was drying
a letter on the blotter when an impression
very legibly made upon it arrested my eye. I
took out a pocket mirror to glance at it lest it
should be something secret relating to the
Firm, and well knowing Clerks get a good
many secrets by reading the blotting book with
mirrors, when to my surprise I found it was
Elmore, for some thousands of dollars. The
sum and date were not quite so legible as the
rest. Now I well knew Dr. Elmore had not
been in the counting-room and that Mr. Hart
told me he got the note signed at the Doctor's
residence. Now, said I, this this is strange.
How could a man write his name and dry it
on our blotter who has not been in the store:
and who, as Mr. Hart says, did not write it in
the store but at his house! The writing of
the note was in Mr. Hart's hand, but the signature
that of Dr. Elmore. Yet both dried at
the same time. Now, said I, either Dr. Elmore
was here and signed that this morning,
while Mr. Hart wrote it, or the signature is a
forgery.'
`But Dr. Elmore might have been there the
day before.'
`Not for six months before without my seeing
him, or knowing it. I am always in the
counting-room. Dr. Elmore can answer that
question.'
`I have not been in Mr. Hart's counting-room
for three years at least,' answered Dr.
Elmore, who had listened with the deepest attention
to Creech's singular statement.
`And this blotting paper led you to suspect
that the note Mr. Hart had given you had
been drawn up and signed by himself?' asked
the Cashier.
`Yes. The instant this painful suspicion
flasbed upon me I thought of the note due in
Bank—of Mr. Hart's anxiety to take it up in
person, and I could not but believe that it was
also a forgery! Judge my feelings, gentlemen!
A partner in a mercantile house discovering
circumstances that lead him to suspect
the honesty of his co-partner. A most delicate
and trying position. If they were forgeries,
there was my own name and reputation
involved! What proof could I bring of my
innocence of all participation? Such were
my reflections! While I was thinking upon
this subject a person informed me that Mr Hart
had fallen in the bank door and been removed
to his house insensible! My first thought was
—`Had he paid the note?' I thought most,
gentlemen, of the honor of the House at that
moment. I flew hither to learn its fate. If
fortunately taken up to inform Mr. Hart of
my knowledge of his guilty proceedings, warn
him against their repetition and demand that
he should at once obtain funds to take up the
note held by Mr. W—. Such was my intention,
gentlemen, in coming to the bank. If
I had found the note unpaid it was my intention
to stop its protest for an hour or two till I
could raise money and get it into my possession.
On my entrance I found you all here.
The looks of both parties showed me at a
glance that I was too late! If possible, gentlemen,
let the affair rest between us! Indignant
as I naturally feel I do not care to have
the matter blazed abroad. Mr. Hart's fall, no
doubt alone prevented him from lifting the
note. He has probably got the money about
him now which I obtained for the purpose.—
Let me propose, that this be paid to the bank
for the note held; and that Mr. W— take
the note of the Firm to secure him, with, if
he pleases, a mortgage upon Mr. Hart's
house.'
This last audacious proposition made Mr.
Hart, guilty and fallen as he felt, start with an
exclamation of indignant astonishment. He,
however, only half rose from his chair and
then sat down again muttering something
which no one understood.
`The Bank cannot receive money so obtained,
Mr. Creech,' said the Cashier.
`But I can receive it,' answered the broker.
`It is mine! I will have it! The note of
your firm you may give to the bank, if you
please!'
`Mr. Creech will not insult the bank by
offering the note of a house so dishonored,'
answered Dr. Elmore. `Pardon me, Mr.
Creech, in using this term I do not reflect upon
you.'
`No, sir. Innocence never suspects! I
did not mistrust that you did, Dr. Elmore.—
You speak truly. Our house is dishonored.—
It shall be my first act to have cancelled the
papers of our co-partnercy. I cannot too soon
leave a position in which I am disgraced.'
`Mr. Hart give me up my money!' demanded
the broker going towards the Merchant,
who, although Creech's account was rife with
falsehood, had felt there was too much truth
in it, for him to attempt to exculpate himself.
`Stay Mr. W —,' said Dr. Elmore—
`There will be an officer here in a few minutes.'
`I will be my own officer,' answered the
broker, seizing Mr. Hart by the collar. `My
money, sir!'
`It is in this pocket-book, Mr. W—' he
With a smile of joy Mr. W— flew to
the counter with it and began to run over the
amount. There was just ten thousand dollars,
which he announced to all. This intelligence
corroborated the Junior Partner's story;
and the fact that with this sum in his pocket
book he was coming to take up the forged
note, was a confirmation of his guilt and of
the truth of Mr. Creech's account. All present
believed the latter innocent and the former
alone criminal.
`Here is the amount of discount, sir,' said
the overjoyed broker on recovering his money;
and placing the hundred dollars back in
the pocket book he returned it to Mr. Hart,
transferring the nine thousand and nine hundred
dollars to his own.
`You are satisfied now, Mr. W—, I
trust?' asked Mr. Creech, smiling.
`Quite so, Mr. Creech,' replied the happy
broker laughing and heartily shaking the Junior
Partner by the hand. `But a sad affair
this for poor Hart.'
`Very.'
At this moment an officer of Police came
into the bank. He was a stout built man of
the middle height, well knit together and of
compact frame. He wore a box overcoat and
fur cap. His face was florid full, and might
be called handsome. Its expression was of
mingled good feeling and determination; courage
and gentleness combined!—the very compound
for a police officer, whom most people
(and themselves too sometimes) think must
be a brute.
The officer glancing round rested his eye
longest on Creech, which was an attention
this gentleman by no means felt flattered by.
But Police officers are physiognomists. In
his mind the officer set the Junior Partner
down as his man. He, however, walked strait
to the counter where stood the Cashier who
had sent after him.
`An unpleasant occurrence, Mr. Clapp.'
`What is it?' he asked, glancing again penetratingly
at the Junior Partner.
`A forgery.'
`Who is the complainant? The criminal I
think I see here.'
`The Bank; and others also.'
`Did you bring a warrant with you?'
`Yes.'
`Dr. Elmore shall you prosecute?'
This gentleman was at that moment painfully
regarding the unhappy Henry Hart;
who from the moment the police officer entered
had sunk his head upon his breast and
sat with his hands clasped together the very
picture of hopeless despair. Dr. Elmore was
thinking of his family, and deeply commisserating
them. He also was thinking upon his
wife, his children—for whom he had given his
hand to crime, with the bitterest agony that
could torture the human bosom.
`Shall you prosecute, Doctor Elmore?' repeated
the Cashier.
`No,' he answered with feeling.
`And you Mr. —,' he asked of the partner
of the house whose endorsement had been
forged.
`Most certainly we shall prosecute, answered
Mr. W— with great positiveness.
`The Bank will do so also, as it will be the
only loser by the forgery. Mr. Clapp you
will take into custody Henry Hart, now in
this room, and safely keep him until the will
of the Directors is known.'
`With what do you charge him, sir?' asked
the officer, looking towards Creech, who a
third time meeting the eye of the constable,
lost his audacity, looked really guilty.
`With a forgery.'
Mr. Hart was seated and partly hidden by
the form of Dr. Elmore, who had turned to
speak to him with reference to his family.—
The officer did not therefore regard him on
whom the Cashier's eyes had turned; but
without hesitation walked strait up to Mr.
Creech and laid his hand upon his shoulder.
The Junior Partner started and turned pale.
`You mistake, sir,' he said trying to smile.
`There is your prisoner!' and he pointed to
Mr. Hart.
The officer looked towards the Cashier for
explanation.
`You are wrong, Mr. Clapp! The gentleman
in the chair.'
The officer bowed an apology which the
Junior Parter graciously accepted, and approaching
Mr. Hart, arrested him. The merchant
moved not. With his face in his hands
he groaned heavily and then rose up.
`He is too ill to be taken to prison, sir,' said
his physician. `He has just received a severe
fall and is still suffering from the effects
of it. Perhaps it could be arranged ao that
`This arrangement can be made,' answered
Dr. Elmore with praise philanthrophy.
The gentlemen present will consent to it.—
desides it would be grateful to his poor wife
to have him with her a little longer. You can
keep him in safe custody there, Mr. Officer.'
`Yes.'
`You shall be well remunerated for your
time.'
`I only desire to do my duty. If the physician
here says it would be dangerous to lodge
him in prison to-night, and the prosecutors
will give me permission to keep guard over
him in his own dwelling, I am perfectly willinh
to comply with their wishes.'
The same carriage which had brought Henry
Hart to the Bank, now departed with him
in the custody of a police officer and his physician,
to which said party Dr. Elmore also
added himself, that he might in person, before
they entered the house, gently break to
his wife, the painful intelligence of her husband's
fall from integrity and honor.
| CHAPTER VII. Ellen Hart | |