News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-09-23

Somebody at the office has forged a
check for three thousand pounds and
more" he replied. 1t had been taken
from your fathers book, and-and-he
he fancies took it-I, who had nothing
to do whatever"
"And do they imagine it was"
Robert was silent.
''And you came here to say you didn't
believe it? Oh, how good OF you!'
''But he thinks am the thief. You
don't Annie2"
No. Robert; l am very sure of that.
Only I can't see you so long as my
father
Roberts only answer to this was
a sigh, and with hurried good-b the
lovers parted.
! Weeks and months went by, and the
= mystery of the forged check remained
unsolved. Mr.. Llvesey insisted that the
! firm should bear the loss of the $4,000,
which Mr.. Mason thought the bank
ought to repay, as they were legally re-
sponsible for the money.
NO." said the old gentleman, "they
may be legally responsible, but l don t
see that they ought to suffer The check
itself was in our hands, and we allowed
a thief to get hold of it. The bank did
all they could. The forged signature is
so like yours that no one could tell the
difference; and the bank cashier tells
me that the man who cashed it showed
him letters addressed to himself as
Joseph Beckman' (the name on the
check, and showed him his card saying
! that he was a solicitor OF course he
wasn't. The thing has been most Gle YER
ly planned, and am quite at loss to
think who put that poor fellow Crump
up to it; but it seems to me we can't let
| the bank suffer. We could not afford
to let it be known we had done so. No
other bank would keep our account"
OF course poor Walter Crump could
not find another situation, though he
would have been glad to take the lowest
| place in an office. The wolf came to
! his door in earnest. Annie, who had a
situation in a Board School, was the
chief support of the family; and the poor
girl was pale and thin from long hours
and scanty meals.
1t was about five months after the day
when the cashier was dismissed in dis
grace that one day Mr. Mason left his
office at half-past /, his usual hour for
going out to lunch. Half-past 1 was
also the time when it was Robert Car
ter's turn to go out for half an hour;
and Mr.. Mason had hardly had time to
reach the street when the young man
left his desk, went into Mr.. Mason's
room, entered a small closet in which
wash hand basin was fitted up, and
proceeded to wash his hands. This was
high misdemeanor, especially as accom-
mediation was provided for clerks in an
other part of the building, but Mr.
Robert Carter preferred Mr.. Mason's
closet, and always used it when he had
chance of doing Sc.
On this occasion, however, he had
barely begun his ablutions when he
heard the outer door of the Office slam,
and then he heard some one, whom he
judged to be his employer, come into
the room.
Fo.tunately the door of the closet was
nearly closed. so that the young man
was invisible to any one in the centre of
the room.
''He has only come back for his UNI
brella," said Robert to himself; ''there
is no need for my moving. If l keep
quiet he will be gone in a minute. No!
some one else has come in with him.
What shall do?"
Mr. Mason had already closed the
double doors which led from his room
to the outer office, and Carter was screw
ing up his courage to the point of con-
Tossing his presence, when the first words
spoken by the stranger fell upon his ear,
and made him stand as still as a stone.
''You can take your choice, as l said
in my letter. Hand me over another
hundred, or I'll split. What's one seven
ty-two out of three thousand? had all
the risk, and you"
"Silence, will you?" Kissed out Mr..
Mason, in an angry whisper. Il can't
give you hundred pounds, for |
haven't got it. But l will give you fifty
now, and fifty next m 3nth. After that
ge5 no more out of me. Anything would
be better than living as slave to a man
like YOU"
"Hand over the fifty. then, D." said the
other after pause; and then there was
a slight rustic of bank-notes.
"You had better leave the country"
said Mr.. Mason in low tone. ''Fhe
bank cashier who cashed the check
might meet you in the street."
III take care of that, - replied the
stranger; and after a few more words
had passed the two men left the office.
Ali this time Carter had been stand
ing half paralyzed, first by fear of dis
covery and then by astonishment. But
he understood this much, that this
stranger was the man who had cashed
the forged check under the name of
Beckman; that Mr.. Mason knew it, and
so far from denouncing him to the po-
lice was giving him money to hold his
tongue. Yes; and more than this, the
stranger was threatening to split upon
Mr.. Mason.
What it could all mean Carter could
not comprehend; but he saw one thing
plainly enough. The important point
was to find out who this man was,
and where he lived. In moment Car
ter ran out of the room, seized his hat
and rushed down stairs.
He was just in time. Mr.. Mason was
leaving the foot of the stairs, going up
the street, while a well-dressed man,
who had evidently just parted from him,
was walking rapidly in. the opposite
direction. Carter followed the stranger
to the Mansion House, and saw him take
a Bayswater omnibus. This suited
Carter exactly. He went around to the
front of the vehicle and got up beside
the driver Then he clambered along
the roof and seated himself above the
door.
At the Holburn Restaurant the man
whom he was following got out and
stopped to refresh himself, while Garter
waited patiently outside. At last he
reappeared, and Garter quietly followed
him down Holburn, up Gray's Inn Road
and into dingy street in the neighbor-
hood of Kings Gross. Here the pre-
tended solicitor stopped at door, which
he opened with latch key.
''Ah!" said Carter to himself, 81
have you now"
He waited few moments, and then
knocked at the door.
1t was answered by dirty, slip-shod
girl.
''Does Mr.. Williamson live hereY" in
quired the young man.
"No, he doesn't"
"Wasn't that Mr. Williamson who
came in just nOw--Mr. Williamson, of
Peterborough
mo, it wasn't. That was our first
floor Mr.. Cromer. You've made mis-
take"
$50 have. Beg pardon, I'm sure"-
and Carter turned away
From Kings Cross he went straight
to Scotland Yard and narrated his ex-
periences. That night Mr.. Livesey re-
celved a visit which caused him some
surDrise-and sO did Mr. Cromnr No