The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-02-07
THEGHOST In THEBANK
OF ENGLAND.
V /.


rather remembering, this strange chap
, ter Of my life in my own quiet study, in,
the quiet town which has been the scene
Of my life and my work ever since l
came home from Jamaica, and where
Annie and I kept our golden wedding
made of better gold than all in the Bank
of England-years ago. l shall pres
emily make an end OF my story in my
own way. But first / must state one
fact which may possibly help the
reader to a different readin gof it than
old Mr.. Deacon's, though, as I shall show
presently, it never satisfied him, and does
not satisfy me. n tiB
The fact was this: when, at ten o'clock
on the morning after my failure to see
thirteen clerks in the private drawing
room, the chief cashier opened his let
ters5 he found in one of the envelops, un-
accompanied by any letter, or word, or
any token to show whence or from whom
it came, Bank Of England note for one
thousand pounds. On comparing its
number with the proper entries it was
found to, be the note which, according to
these entries, had been given to me in
payment Of Mr.. Mendez check on the
10th of May.
Now what should this imply? 1t may
now be taken as impossible that any Off
cial of the Bank Of England, high or
low, would if he could, or could if he
would, abstract from the notes to be
burned on return one. or more of them
in order that he might, by paying or caus-
ing to be paid this old note over the
counter, and by entering a new note in-
stead Of it, appropriate the new note to-
his own pocket.
But it may certainly be taken that the
machinery of the bank was less abso-
lutely perfect then than now; and it is
Just possible to suppose such an abstrac-
tionof an old note and such an entry and
appropriation of new one.
The old note would have been given to
me. The new note would have been en-
tered in place Of it, but retained. a
IF the manipulation was low in Office
and acting alone, he would run no more
chances of detection than rogues always
run; if high, in Office, or the instrument
of one high in Office, detection would be
exceptionally difficult, if not impossible,
supposing the checks and machineries to
have been then imperfect enough to
make the original manipulation possible
at all. 1 know not the whole result or
course Of the further investigation to
which the return Of the new note
(whether for anonymously getting an in
nocent man out of an unexpected peril,
or for the sake Of throwing overheard a
dangerous piece Of property. or as part
and parcel Of the scheme, and by way of
restoring a balance) gave rise.
Whether the clerk who stood at the
pnlacky desk suffered alone, or whether
any higher official suffered with him, or
whether any malpractices were brought
to light on the part of any body, never
learned.
But this 1 do know, that the checks
and machinery of the Bank of Eng
land have; since these investigations, be-
come in these matters type and model
of absolute perfection; and that, when
surrendered to take my trial, no evidence
was offered of my having forged or ut
tered a note which. nobody could say
with the least reason had been forged at
all. l might have dreamed; l might
have lied; but neither dreams nor sim
pie lies are crimes, and was discharged.
But, as Ihave said, this way of ac-
counting for the mystery did not satisfy
the mind Of man like old Mr.. Deacon,
who would believe anything rather than
that the machinery of the Bank Of Eng.
land was more capable Of breaking down
at pinch than that Of the Solar Sys-
tenn.
And 7 knew that Isaac Ayscough---
now else could my eyes, however excited,
and my nerves, however highly strung,
have imagined one whom I had never
seen alivef--and / know it still.
No death-sleep has he, the corpse OF
the man who murdered his friend by
treachery and destroyed the brain of the
, girl whom he loved with what he called
: fove-perhaps, before her brain, her
! woman's soul. Every day the rotting
. ghost is drawn, sif by a lodestone, to
the desk whereon, in the flesh, it wrote
its sin, turned to remorse now. II stood
there day after day in the flesh; day af-
ter day the sin-corrupted spirit tolls there
= still, at the old place, and in the same
old way. Perhaps its fingers, scratching
. ghostly entries, give him a favor Of
: charnel-luck to the very desk where il
stands. But, more than doom. enough
for it, it can not escape; it must toll there
= and rot on. And what work is there fol
such ghost to do7 ,y
Enough, surely, and to spare. Such a
1 ghost as this can never be without plen
/ ty. Of customers If there be ghost
that haunt the scenes of common mur
, der, hew much more closely must no
ghosts be bound to the scenes of golt
and of passion, which are the very root
, of murderf If they are bound to place
which they loathe, how much more mus
they not haunt the places which con
tained the whole Of their earthn treas
ure? Where the ghost sof the treasur
was, there may one look to find th'
ghost Of the heart also. What is to be
come of those who never had any sou