# The Steadfast Heart/Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
It was at this time that Rainbow began to talk in whispers about Judge Crane. The gist of them in the beginning was embodied in the words of old Sile Weaver, who said one day in the post office, “Jedge Crane hain’t contrivin’ to come out as well as he calc’lated, seems as though.” Hammond, the grocer, who sold the Judge supplies for his camp, contributed to the growing opinion that Crane might not be a giant of finance after all by his continuous expression of worry, and by ill-natured remarks which demonstrated he was not wholly at ease respecting the payment of the account…. In a week Rainbow seethed with gossip and with sub-surface speculations as to how the Judge was going to “make out….” Crane’s manner did nothing to reassure the doubters.
The man was desperate. He must prosecute his work with extraordinary enterprise in order to avert ruin, but he had not a penny with which to continue. He was face to face with the impossibility of meeting his next week’s payroll. ​Money he must have or oil he must have and neither was forthcoming. His credit was exhausted; every scrap of property he owned was pledged and he was face to face with disaster. The moment in which any man realizes this—especially such a man as Malcolm Crane—is one of dreadful possibilities and potentialities. Your business man, your man who pursues a career whose success is dependent upon the approbation of the public, fears insolvency even more than he fears death. Almost daily in the public prints this dark fact is demonstrated—the fact that, offered the choice between facing bankruptcy and his Maker, a man will choose to throw himself into the abyss of eternity…. We find, as we study mankind in the laboratory of life, that he will prefer the risks of crime to the mercilessness of the bankruptcy court. Faced with financial ruin, a disaster which seems to carry down reputation as well as fortune, the most upright man will not escape his hour of temptation…. It is the good fortune of many in such an emergency that temptation is not coupled with opportunity.
Judge Crane was an honest man. He was not a big man, might even be a small man, yet he owned his set of ideals, and honestly held its place among them. Perhaps it was the honesty of expediency—much virtue exists not for ​virtue itself but for the rewards of virtue. As a lawyer and judge he had striven, according to his nature, to act honorably, impartially, conscientiously. It is true he had his meannesses and his petty vanity and the vindictiveness which so often goes hand in hand with vanity. On the other hand, he was of commendable industry, holding to laudable ambitions—and with the persistence of fair winds and in charted seas he might have voyaged to honored success. In short, he was a normal man, compounded as we all must be of the admirable and of the despicable…. But he was not equipped with that sturdiness of soul which alone enables the best of us to weather tempest and shipwreck…. By his good name he set great store….
When temptation first lifted its head before his consciousness he crushed it down with a shudder. It returned….
The country lawyer, the country judge, occupies to an extent the position of the trust company in larger centers of population. Fiduciary responsibilities are thrust upon him. He must manage estates, husband investments; his safe is the depository of securities, and it is not without precedent that he holds power of attorney to exercise the widest discretion over the properties of his clients. He must be both man of law and man of business, and to this rule Malcolm Crane ​was no exception…. And because this was so it is manifest that temptation walked hand in hand with opportunity.
In the safe at his office were securities—under his control. It is true he was under bond as executor, administrator, or trustee—but a bond is effective only in the moment of final accounting. Temptation whispered to him that it would be an easy, a safe matter to borrow some of these securities to tide him over his immediate difficulties, to pledge them outside Rainbow, and to redeem the pledge when the oil commenced to flow and his dreams were realized. It would seem that this particular form of crime is the one best calculated to overturn the normally honest man. It was a “borrowing….”
Early in September Angus Burke was in Deal in consultation with the local banker. After the business was satisfactorily completed Mr. Richards, who had a liking for the young man and a generous admiration for his sound qualities, invited Angus to drive behind his new team…. It was during this drive that the name of Judge Crane entered the conversation—when Mr. Richards spoke with some show of curiosity of Crane’s rising financial star. “He was here in Deal a few days ago,” said Mr. Richards. “I did a small jag of business with him—loaned him ​a matter of ten thousand dollars…. You folks reckon him a coming man, don’t you?”
“He’s our circuit judge,” said Angus.
Mr. Richards laughed. “That is what I would call a safe and sane answer, Burke…. Well, coming man or not, I took no risk. He gave me absolutely gilt-edged security.”
Angus schooled his face to show no expression. Gilt-edged security for ten thousand dollars! Where had Judge Crane found securities of that class to present as collateral for a ten-thousand-dollar loan?… Where?… He was silent during the remainder of the drive, but when they stopped at the station a few moments before train time he ventured a question. “Would you mind telling me what securities Judge Crane deposited as collateral for his loan?”
Richards glanced keenly at the young man’s face. “Why,” he said, “as between banker and banker I’ve no objection…. Liberty Bonds…. Is anything out of kilter?”
Angus shook his head; his eyes were worried, his face set and grave. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t understand….”
That night he sat long in his office figuring, tabulating information. He wished Henry G. Woodhouse were at home, for this was a matter which touched his employer. The son of Judge ​Crane was Mr. Woodhouse’s heir…. How would Henry G. behave in the circumstances which confronted Angus? He felt it was his duty to act as his employer would have acted.