Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-05-14

found out till it's proved. I want to know
what can do.
That premature question was the, only
sion Of precipitancy or impotence | had
ever seen in John Butler. 1 began to see
that he was disturbed by something be-
vond the loss, to himself or the bank, of
f2O0. or by the less detestable necessity of
being mixed up in what looked like Grim:
inal matter, So made no answer, which
is always the best way of getting quickly
at the bottom OF story.
"Tm putting up the new row OF villas
on the esplanade at Redport, said he;
ait's biegish job in small way, and it's
very much on my own account and what
with the hands, and one thing and another,
there's a poodish lot of cash floating about
from week to week-going out, anyhow,
Though of course none to speak of coming
IN. So. to save a lot of bother, I've had
for some time an account with the branch
at Reduort. You don't know the plase, |
believe?
"Tye never been over tbere yet; but l
must run over some day, when | can get
holiday. Well g
"It's been mainly through me that the
place has got on well enough to make 1t
worth the banks while to have branch
there aud if / was to draw for five times
| what's to my credit, don't suppose they'd
make any bother, looking to my credit at
the main branch here. So this game might
go on any time before l heard I'd over
drawn. As far as I'm concerned, check
on the branch at Redport's much the same
as one on the bank here"
| ''Well ?"
You see, though, that jobs middllng
| big. I've got too many bigger on hand to
bother in person with Redport. It's two
months since Eve been near the place, and
maybe it'll be another month before 1 can
get over there again. So I've got clerk
Of the works in an Office in one OF the VII
las, and he comes over to me here every
Friday to report and take any new orders.
and | give him checks on the Redport
branch for what's wanted he brings me
his accounts and vouchers, of course, and
| settle that way whatever has to be PAID
running. Aud some of the checks l re-
ceive | send over by him to be paid IN
there"
g Excuse me, said i, "but doesn't this
seem rather a loose and rough way of doing
things? In the first place. don't seewhy
YOU should make any payments through
the Redport branch at all, and certainly
don't see how all. this concerns these for
geries.
"Tll tell you why do it, and how 1t
concerns these-forgeries, too. l want to
keep as much cash knocking about in Red
port as | can, and to keep as little from
going out-that's the way to push place
on. And for the same reason, l don't
- I'D rhsxy va
got too little to do. My clerk comes to
me. at 4 o'clock every Friday afternoon.
First of all, give him check for the
mems weeks wages. Then we go through
the accounts, and for any that want TO
settle off hand, either draw separate
checks in favor of the different parties, or
else l give him another lump check for
him to cash and pay out in gold. In fact,
there's all sorts of things to be paid in all
sorts of ways. If the account seems run
ming low it's easier for me to pay in few
checks than to bother the bank here.
Anyhow, it saves me a bushel of bother,
and don't oblige me to give more than an
hour week to Redport-and even an
hours too much at times,
" Just tell me precisely everything that
| happens, please. We're rather vague.
where we are. He cones to you at four
every Friday, and You give him all these
| checks-Whatever he asks for-and then he
goes back at once to Redport by rail g
John Butler glanced at me sharply. By
those words whatever he asks for" had
| trodden upon what is always the most SEN
sitive Of an over-trustful mans corns
| had limited at the want of worldly pru-
dence which such man, far more than
any other, hates to be suspected OF lacking.
" I'm not quite born fool" said he.
1--WE go through the accounts, and he
stays for supper and bed. By breakfast
time next morning I've found a half-hour
to examine the accounts and to write the
checks. / give him the whole lot in a
leather case, and he goes back to Redport ;
and it's his duty, before he goes to the
office, to go to the Redport Bank and pay
in and draw out whateyer's required"
/ | did not see how this made matters any
better from a prudential point of view
but did not venture again upon what |
| felt to be rather dangerous ground.
"Then all your transactions with the
branch bank at Redport," / asked, I" are
confined to 10 o'clock Saturday morning ?
This check is stamped as cashed on the
9th, which ,gouid be a Saturday. OF course
we shall learn from your pass book, or
from the checks themselves, if that was so
with the others. If so, the falae checks
must either have been presented together
with the others, or by somebody who knew
your system. Also, it is clear that
/ they Sare drawn, Judging from this,
/ by somebody who had exceptional means
! of knowing your handwriting, and of prac-
I 4 L. &c 7 koxty
little likely you we're, with such system
of business as yours, to detect fraud very
soon. Also, by somebody to whom your
check book was accessible, in one way or
another. Are these checks taken from
hold of some other?"
/ could see that John Buller began to
look strangely troubled.
From mine I" said he, in a curiously
defiant tone.
" And the counterfoils Cut out, sup
pose? That's the usual way"
"No; every man Jack filed up In way
that would take the very devil in. And,
yet, Mr.. Standish, those checks are no
more my drawing than they're yours. l
keep private account Of every check l
draw and it stands to reason when four
checks that you know you didn't draw are
alone missing out of an account of fifty that
you know you did draw, then you can't be
mistaken. That's as clear as day"
"All right, Mr.. Butler; it is as clear as
day. And though criminal business is
very much out of my lire, wen have
that forger beyond the seas in, comparative
ly speaking, the twinklipg Of an eye.
What's the fellows name ?"
His name? And how the deuce, sir,
should l know his name ?"
"Not know the name of your own clerk
of the works at Redport? By Jove, Mr..
Butler, l shall begin to think you q queer
sort of business man !"
"We're at crooked answers, Mr.. Stand
ish, it seems to me-" be said, wiping his
forehead hard, though the weather was
unusually cold. My clerk at Redport is
Adam Brown"
"Then it's lucky Mr., Adam Brown