The morning call., 1892-07-17

gentleman you brought with you in a cab,
about o'clock yesterday evening" we saw
nothing more OF you last night In point of
fact, SIR" added Bax coDfdentially, "we
saw nothing more OF you till you came in
just now.
Oswald gazed at him open-mouthed.
THE gentleman / brought with me in a
cab about O'Clock yesterday EVENING" he
gasped. II don't remem ber-that Is TO
say. don't understand.
Yes. sic; a gent with black pointed
beard and hooked nose. You drove up
together in hanson. You took the gentle
man upstairs to your own room, sir, and
after staying there for matter Of 10 min
utes you drove away together. and that's the
last time any of us set eyes on you till YOU
| came in a few minutes since"
Oswald's bewilderment eliminated with
| Bax's last words. He was like man
houndering in morass. who only sinks the
| deeper the more he struggles to extricate
himself. To attempt to analyze the strange
| confluence OF emotions TO which he was Just
then prey would be labor in vain. A few
| minutes later he said:
''Cummins, old mon, feel awfully queer.
just give me an arm upstairs, will your"
AS soon as they reached his room Oswald
! produced key.
Il wish you would open my portma nteau,"
| he said, land bring me tile check book you
viii find somewhere inside it," A horrible
suspicion had dawned upon his mind
|
| 1t 10 Oswald. TIE latter, to his knowledge.
| had depleted his legacy by the amount of
/ two checks only. the first of them being for
| 9loO. and the second for eos. His fingers
| shook little as he took the book Three
/ seconds later found bis worst fears con-
firmed. A third check was now missing
from the book. on the counterfeit of which,
! In his own writing, these words staring him
in the face, self or bearer. eI5O0"
| Within 10 minutes of the opening of the
e Al a.
| Monday morning following The events
herein narrated, Ainslie, accompanied by
| CumminS, presented himself at the counter.
Handing bis card to one of the cashiers, he
| said:
''Can you Inform me whether any check
| bearing my signature was cashed by you on
Saturday lastY
Oswald's card, having been taken to a
second official, the latter beckoned him 10
| another part of the bank.
| ''I on are Mr. Ainsiie?" he asked,
Oswald nodded.
That being the case. sir, your question
strikes me a somewhat singular one seems
that on Saturday you came here in person
and presented check, signed by yourself
/ Tor 1880. which was duly hOnored by us ;"
| WAS / alone when | cashed the check in
| question? You will. / am sure, pardon me
when tell you that just now am suffering
| from sudden and most unfortunate lapse
| OF memory"
/
mo. sir. you We're not alone; you were
accompanied by gentleman much older
! than yOurseif-a person with black beard
| and mustache and prominent nose. Not
| knowing you personally, Mr.. Ainslie and
| the check being made out 10 self or bearer
| "a somewhat unusual thing Ia the case of
so large an amount-we took the precautiou
| OF asking You TO favor us with another
| specimen of your signature as a proof of
identity. After that, of course, we had no
on ion hut tn nos In af.a
"How did / take it?"
"You took $500 in gold. sir. and the rest
| IN notes at from so u go each"
What Oswald learned at the bank was no
| more than he had expected to be told. He
| had had the whole Of Sunday during which
to draw his conclusions from what he knew
| or guessed already.
From the bank he and Cummins drove 70
! Mlntern place, only to find that the CAPTAIN
| and his daughter had taken their departure
| between and 9 O'Clock on Saturday even
| ing. after having given previous notice of
| their Intention 10 do so. As TO whittier they
| had taken themselves, nobody at No. "a
| protesSed to have the remOtest notion, To
! Oswald 1t now seemed that there was
| nothing left him To do save 10 go back 10
| his hotel and digest his loss with whatever
amount OF philosophy he could summon to
! his aid. Even If he could have succeeded
| IN following ND DemetTius, what then
| There was no legal proof that the money
Il ]
| the moral proof might seem without flaw:
| and granting that the banknOtes could have
! been traced to him and an action brought
| against him for fraudulent possession, or
! whatever the legal term might be. what
! jury would convict man on the strength
! OF the preDOsierous story on which. and on
| which alone. Ainslie would have to rely?
| No; as Cummins pthily put the matter, he
must just ''grin and bear it,"
Ii was perfectly clear to him now that
W ha i f..fafa
| duced by the drugged coffee he had been
| thrown into hypnotic trance, and that all
which had happened to him between 7
! O'Clock on Friday evening and the same
! hour on Saturday had occurred while he
was in that state. Only little while before
| ne had read work by 81 NJ. Benet and
/ Ferret, the French saFants, whose record of
! hypnotic experiments conducted by .ihem-
| selves and others contained matter far more
! surprising and una :count able than anything
that had happened to himself.
But there was q worse blow In store for
! AiBslie than the loss of his el500 A few
! DAYS later came the news of Lady Pym's
| death. She had died. too. without
| a will. owing to which act of remiss-
ness on her part all her godson's hopes
| and expectations were scattered to the
| winds. 1t was a sadder, and. let us hone. a
wiser Oswald Ainslie that presently jour
| neyed down 20 Norwood than the iubIlaDt
| youth who had travelled up to town such a
| little while before
Y ct Il may well be that, In the long run.
! both the loss of his money and the shatier-
| ing II his expectations proved far more o Z
benefit TO him than the reverse. tor he
now set himself seriously to earn his own
] living, which, had all gone well with him.
he almost certainly would not have done
and by that very act his character gained
| the ballast and steadiness in which it has
! been lacking before. To him the world was
no longer playground. but place for ear
nest work and unceasing endeayOr and In
! have that truth thoroughly brought home
was full worth the price he had paid for it,
| Not TIL five years had gone by id he find
himself in a position 10 marry, but in Ellen
| Trent he gained a wife well worth waiting
| for.-All the Year Round.