Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-11-17

4 teller. The work inleriered with even
more Important duties.
son OF Mr.. Traill, the parish minister,
vino was employed at the Aberdeen branch
OF the same bank, at this time visited Toll
kirk, and being Of the same craft, spent o
| good deal OF time in Mr. Duli's company.
! Tho subject Of the missing money was
preached and discussed between them. IL
so happened that George Trail was en-.
| gagged to be married to Mary Duff; and
the banker having lost confidence in Ham.
ilion, and feeling sorely in need OF capable
help, proposed that George should apply
to the directors of the bank for the appoint.
ment OF jointagent or partner with himself
In the management of the TollkirlI branch.
So ii came about that in short time George
| Trail, a shrewd, practical business man,
relieved Mr.. Duff at the telling-table, in
order to familiarize himself with the faces
| OF the banks customers. For some DAYS
all went well. Then came market-day.
At close Of the day Mr.. Traill's cash was
five hundred pounds short!
CHAPTER II.
Dismay fell on the quiet little bank II
Iollkirk. The former uneasiness becam
IN the Office panic. Hamilton had bee
made Ill by the anxiety of his position.
and was in bed on the day that Mr. Trailrs
! denciency occurred. After closely scruti.
nlzlng every entry in the books, Trail
came to the conclusion that he had moi
palu the money In excess to any one, and
that the notes must have been stolen b.
some one on the premises. The banks
safe was duly examined; but the locks
pore no marks OF being tampered with.
Inc WINDOWS and doors of the office were
unaffected; and Mr.. Dutf's domestics-
VINO swept out the office-had been his ser
wants and were known to him for wears
Inc matter was on this occasion reported
10 the banks head office; but thence came
the coid animation that no further def
| cheney could be made good and referring
The bank agents to their recent letter to
that effect of such and such date.
Mr.. Duff began to think the place was
haunted. Wherever the money was gone,
it had to be paid up; raising the total
losses made in this mysterious way to the
unpalatable sum of fourteen hundred
pounds in less than three months. The
mystery was all the deeper that during the
day of the difference in Trails cash it had
happened there had not been a single cash
payment amounting to five hundred pounds.
Then there came vague rumors-such as
the police, had the matter passed into their
hands, would certainly have made use Of
that there was an itinerant locksmith, a
gypsy, in the neighborhood to whom popu-
lar rumor attributed almost miraculous
COVER in the manipulation of locks. Yet
it would take very clever locksmith in.
deed to open the Central Banks safe un-
heard in the house, and to close it again
without leaving traces of his work. The
safe bad foundation of eight feet of stone,
end was coated on the floor WALL and roof
with two-inch plate of solid iron. The
doors were, of course, of iron, and each
there were four doors-had two keys and
separate locks. Through the lock of the
outer iron door an iron bolt was each even
ing shot down from Mr.. Duff's bedroom
above, and while that bolt was down, no
key in the world could open the door 1t
was necessary to be in Mr.. Duff's bedroom
pefore the bolt could be drawn or dropped.
1t was extremely improbable that there
were any in Tollkirk who could, even with
the necessary keys in their hands, find
their way into the strong-room unaided
No longer was Mr.. Duff able to leave
the bank with an easy mind for two
o'clock luncheon-with forty winks to fol-
low-as had been his custom these twenty
years. He was closely on the watch. Yet
there was no visible cause for suspicion.
Bankers and clerks were fast becoming de.
moralized-in the military sense - from
sheer fright, accelerated by mystery, and
sense Of utter helplessness in face OF it.
Mr.. Duff might far better be losing his for
rune on the Stock Exchange or throwing
his money away on turf speculations; in
fLn.., ho -
II profit, if not satisfaction in losing his
property. His bark had up to this time
sailed in smooth seas, had even, hitherto,
tioated in sheltered bay, unexposed to
financial tempests or breakers; but now a
leak of dangerous sort had sprung, as
likely, he imagined, to ingulf him at his
anchorage as any buffeting of waves in
open sea-
Mr.. Duff became a changed man. He
was thin and worn and ill with anxiety and
watching. They were all watching. Traill
was watching Hamilton; Hamilton turned
keen glance on the boys; the boys kept
their eyes very widely open all round
hlr. Duff was unwilling to put the matter
in the hands of the local police, knowing
that the first to be suspected would be his
| clerks, and that the affair would speedily
| become town gossip Secretly Mr. Duff
began to think the place was bewitched.
His partner, George Traill, being called
upon to pay up half of the five hundred
pounds, resolved to get TO the bottom of
| the matter He had bed fitted up in the
bankers business-room, and determined to
spend his nights there until some solution
of the problem presented itself. His trans
fer from the Aberdeen branch seemed Just
then to prove bad bargain. The keys of
the safe, it should be mentioned, number.
ing eight, were placed every night after
the locking up of the safe and the dropping
of the iron bolt from the bankers bedroom,
| in strong-boX, the key of which was al
ways carried by Mr.. Duff. George Traill,
armed with revolver, in spite Of Mary's
| protests and Mr.. Duff s jecrS, occupied the
room when the bed had been fitted there,
and waited philosophically the course of
events. He slept little for the first night Or
| TWO; but no intruder came to disturb his
| repose. The long dull hours crcpt on
without adventure or other result than TO
make Trail sleepy and cross during the
following days The bankers were begin
| ming to despair of discovering the thief
| Yet Trail-despite Mr.. Duff's perfectly
reasonable argument that ii any man broke
| INTO the safe it would not bc merely five
| hundred pounds that would satisfy him,
nor would he likely risk a second or third
visii--continued to spend his nights in the
bank. Il. l.0. 0."t'H
At daybrcak, however, on certain morn
ing in the following week, Trail, who
slept very lightly, was suddenly awakened
and startled by hearing the bolt that passed
through the lock of the outer door of the
safe drawn sharply up. lie could hardly