University of Virginia Library

20. CHAPTER XX.
THE SUSPICION.

`Now my dear James,' said Mr. Weldon, after he had in some degree
recovered his composure; `Now let us investigate this extraordinary affair
together. Pardon me, that I have suspected you! but my heart told me
you could not be guilty. But —'

`Sir, do not take the trouble to explain your motives in proceeding with
me as you have done. It was the only way to satisfy your own mind, and
to give me an opportunity of manifesting my innocence or my guilt. This
note is to me a most extraordinary thing. If Mr. Morley placed it in your
hands with this forged check, you had every reason to suspect me, sir! I
am grateful that, without denial on my part, you have voluntarily acknowledged
yourself convinced that I did not utter this check, strong as the circumstances
seem! I have indeed an enemy, sir! a cruel and evil enemy,
who seeks my downfall!'

`There is no question of it. Now let us together examine thoroughly into
this matter. But first, here is another letter, which I have not shown
you. It was written to Mr. Morley. Do you recognize the address?'

`No, sir. It is a female's writing.'

`Read it. I would not show it to you, for I know its contents will grieve
and confound you, but it may lead to the detection of the writer. Read it
with calmness, now, my dear friend, for know that I am with you, and that
we will yet defeat your enemies!'

It would be difficult to describe James's astonishment as he went on reading
the letter signed `Eveline Dernel.' His cheek flushed and his eyes
kindled with honest indignation. It was several moments before he could
articulate brokenly,

`With this also in your hands, sir, I am surprised at your forbearance
with me! Your friendship and confidence, sir, have been severely tried. I
can never be too grateful to you for examining me in private first! If I
had been delivered to the police, as it was natural I should have been, I feel
I could never have proved my innocence; for I cannot prove who is the
guilty person. I have no clew! Did Mr. Morley receive this letter this
morning?'

`Yes, James; not long after the lad had left the bank; for the boy, finding
he hesitated about paying the draft, secretly departed; and in a few
minutes a black man came in and handed to Mr. Morley that letter.'

`It is very extraordinary! What must Mr. Morley think?'

`Mr. Morley will keep the matter locked in his own bosom until I see
him, and report to him the result of my interview with you. Have you no
suspicion who the boy is?'

`None in the least, sir! The whole matter is a mystery to me!'

`And you know no such person as she who signs herself Eveline Dernel?'

`No, sir. I am lost in amazement. It seems to me that I dream! I
imagine I must wake up each instant and realize that it is all a dreadful
dream!'

`I pity you, and sincerely sympathize with you, James. I will take up
this affair for you as if I were the victim myself; for you are, without question,

the victim of some foul conspiracy against your name and character. I
will now tell you all I know touching the operations in the bank, and concerning
the lad who was the agent of these frauds.'

Mr. Weldon then went fully into a detail of all the facts that had been
stated to him by Mr. Morley, up to the time he received the note signed
`Dernel.' When he had ended his narrative James sat silently revolving in
his mind all persons of his knowledge who would be likely to seek his ruin.
He tried to imagine who the female was, but was wholly at fault. He then
tried to fasten upon the lad, in his mind, but with no better success. The
negro, who was a participator, he could not identify, for he knew none of
the race in the city.

`Can you fasten upon any body?'

`No sir. The woman, the lad, the negro, are characters I am wholly at
a loss about. There is only one man who would do me an injury, and that
is Jack Brigs.'

`The burglar?'

`Yes, sir; but he is an uneducated person, and it is impossible he should
have forged this check, or so successfully have imitated my hand-writing!'

`It is not an ignorant man, like this fellow, you have for an enemy here,
James. Your foe is an educated and accomplished person, or he could not
have written either the note or draft, as you observe; but more than this,
he is a man of business; he is acquainted with banking affairs; he knows
my own banking concerns, and is familiar, wonderfully so, with all our banking
operations. It is evident that the principal is neither the negro, the lad,
nor the female. They are, as she confesses, but tools. The true man remains
behind the curtain, and puts them forward. You, she said, was this
person; but I am satisfied it is another, and she who wrote this false letter
is as bad as he!'

`This letter I am satisfied, sir,' said James, after having for a few moments
been carefully reading it over; `this letter, I am more and more convinced,
was not written by a female!'

`That idea never struck me. What leads you to suspect this? It seems
to me quite likely that it may be as you say!'

`The business terms she uses, no female would employ. The letter could
have been written only by a person acquainted with business, far beyond
what a woman would be supposed to know. Her language about “checking,”
“over-checking,” “depositing,” and the general mercantile air of the
whole, leads me to suspect that the person who forged the check and also
my handwriting, forged this female signature!'

Mr. Weldon took the letter and carefully perused it. When he had ended
it, he said, with emphasis,

`You are right, you must be right in your conjectures, James. This note
was written by a man, and one familiar with the mode of doing business
among merchants. In a word, I think it was written by a merchant!'

`By a merchant?' repeated James, with surprise.

`Yes. There are merchants who are destitute of principle as well as
other men. Who have you offended?'

`No one, sir.'

`Nor merchant's clerk?'

`No — nay — I had forgotten — but it is impossible to think of him!'

`We have got to think of somebody, and when we discover the somebody,
we shall no doubt be both confounded. We must, therefore, not think it an

impossible thing to think of any person on whom our thoughts happen to
light. Who is on your mind, James? It is necessary we should probe this
matter to the quick. Nothing must be kept behind; for the least thing may
serve to throw light upon the path.'

`I was thinking of Carlton Ellery, sir; but I hesitated to speak out my
thoughts, lest, for one reason, it might seem to appear that I suspected him
because I had been his rival.'

`Have you reason to think young Ellery is your enemy?'

`His looks are not very friendly when we meet and pass in the street;
but he has never spoken to me in any hostile manner.'

`Yet you believe him your enemy?'

`To tell you the truth, sir, I have had an instinctive suspicion that he
would do me an evil turn if it was in his power. This has been my feeling.
It is only a feeling; for as I have said, we have never quarrelled.'

Mr. Weldon remained a few moments in an attitude of profound thought.
James sat with his eyes fixed upon the face of his benefactor with solicitous
anticipation of the result of his reflections. His face was calm, but pale;
his manner dignified, yet depressed. He felt severely, as became a sensitive
and honorable mind, the painful position in which he had been so suddenly
and mysteriously placed; and although he was convinced, that in the
mind of Mr. Weldon there remained not the least suspicion against himself,
yet he desired most earnestly to be able to convince him, by proof, of his
innocence. He could not rest satisfied with the generous acquittal of his
benefactor's heart and head, but he wished to prove clearly to him that he
had not acquitted without grounds. The fear lest his enemies should keep
themselves so concealed that he should be unable to afford this proof, caused
him the deepest anguish of spirit. But trusting in his innocence, and the
overruling justice of Providence, he tried to hope against despair.

`What do you know, James, of Ellery's character? Has he not the reputation
of being wild?'

`As all will depend on an open scrutiny of the characters that are suggested
to us, I will not hesitate to say freely what I know of him. He has
the reputation of being dissipated. He attends the theatres frequently. He
gives suppers, and plays heavily, I am told. But this I have only heard of
him recently. He is a young man whose morals are not the most pure!'

`That is my vague suspicion of the young man. Do you know any thing
against his principles? Have you ever heard any act spoken of, of his, unworthy
a gentleman?'

`No, sir; I have only heard his general habits commented upon in the
counting-room; by Mr. Finney as freely as any one; and he knows him, I
believe, somewhat intimately.'

Mr. Weldon rose from his chair, placed his hands crossed behind him, and
with his head dropped upon his breast, slowly walked the room. James saw
that he was deeply revolving the perplexing matter in his mind. He also
gave up his thoughts to the train of ideas which Ellery's name had suggested,
and suspicions of him forced themselves slowly but most impressively
upon him. Suddenly Mr. Weldon stood still before him.

`James,' he said, in a low but firm tone, `I suspect this young man! You
have no other enemies capable by education and circumstances of perpetrating
this enormous and singularly skilful fraud but him. He is in a mercantile
house, too, and hence the knowledge of mercantile affairs manifested in
the note as well as in the transactions throughout. He is often in the habit

of coming here! He has, therefore, opportunities of getting specimens of
your writing, and of getting a knowledge of our banking affairs. You say that
Mr. Finney is intimate with him. Through Mr. Finney, by subtle questioning,
he may have learned much, for I do not suspect Mr. Finney at all!'

`Nor do I, sir,' answered James, warmly. `But every word you say
strengthens my belief that the enemy who seeks my ruin is Mr. Ellery!'

`There is no question of it. It is some one who has had access to our
blank check file, and has examined the checks I have drawn, perhaps purloined
the blanks here, and taken away one of the paid checks from the
bank; for I have seen him once or twice in the Director's room with his
uncle, Colonel Duane, who is a Director, and whose fortune he will inherit,
that is, if he be innocent here! He may have obtained one of my dead
checks within the bank, to serve him as a copy. If it be Ellery, he has
been placed under favorable circumstances for accomplishing his nefarious
ends; and has shown no little industry, skill, and perseverance.'

`We had one hundred blank checks placed on the wire for use; there are
five missing from the file over the number that has been filled out! These
my enemy, whoever he be, has probably taken away!'

`Mr. Finney!' called the merchant, in an elevated tone.

`Sir,' answered the book-keeper, opening the door, and partly thrusting in
his head, ornamented with a pen stuck over the right ear.

`Come in and shut the door, if you please.'

Mr. Finney did as he was directed to do, and stared at the grave faces of
the two gentlemen.

`Mr. Finney, do persons who visit the counting-room in my absence or
that of Mr. Daily, ever enter here?'

`Oh, no, sir! No one ever comes here unless you are in! I tell every
body that it is your sanctum, and no one goes in without very special business!
Oh, no, sir!'

`None of your friends?'

`Not one, sir.'

`I did n't know but that perhaps, Mr. Ellery or —'

`Never, sir! Ellery is the last man I would let in here, he is so prying
and curious!'

`He is?'

`Yes, sir. He puts twenty questions in five minutes, and seems half the
time to have nothing to do but to talk chit-chat in counting-rooms! But
that's owin' to his bein' an heir, and it makes him quite indifferent about
business!'

`Then he has not been in here?'

`Of that I am most positive, sir! for I remember two or three weeks ago
he was in, and was passing through into the sanctum in a lounging way, but
I shut the door, and he turned away.'

`Did he make any remark?'

`He laughed, sir, and said he wasn't going to steal your bank-book, sir.
An odd idea, very!' solemnly observed the methodical and starched Finney.
`He laughed and said then he would peep in, and so, as the cross sash was
down, he leaned over and looked in here, admiring the neat appearance of
every thing, for he said it was the handsomest private counting-room in the
city!'

`In that way he could have reached in and abstracted the blank checks
from the file,' said James, in an under tone.

`Yes. I am satisfied I now know the man! Mr. Finney you may retire.'