Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-07-08
A STROKE OF CONSCIENCE.

Mr.. Marchmont sat alone in his
city office, gloomily realizing the fact
that he was ruined man; and, worse
still, that he had involved others in
his own financial disasters, without
either their knowledge or their con-
sent. 1t was the old, old tale; i'll for
tune in business, rash speculative in
vestments to meet extravagant expen-
diture, then misrepresentation of trust
funds to repair past losses and enable
him to continue his gambling vantures
with the wild hope that previous mis-
fortunes could be retrieved. Now all
was gone; the fortune of his orphan
clients as well as his own; and, in an
other month or so, when Harold Will
Jams would be "a, and the ''trust"
would, by the terms of his old friends
will, have to be rendered up discovery
of the real condition of affairs must
ensue. 1t was not an agreeable pros
pect, for Mr.. Marchmount, like many
another misapplier of trust funds, had
never intended to be actually dis
honest any more than does the clerk
or shopman who ''borrows" from his
employers ''petty cash, or shop till,
to meet his own losses on the race
course. Every gambler with the
money of other people looks forward
to making some ''lucky stroke" which
shall recoup all his former losses-and
is mostly disappointed in this excep-
tation. For long time Mr.. March
mount had fought desperately against
the evidence of facts, and plunged
into yet wilder speculations with the
hope of retrieving his financial dis
asters, but now all was gone; the for
tune of the two orphans of his oldest
frind engulfed with his own, and this
under circumstances which would as
suredly lay the defaulting trustee
open to a criminal prosecution. Would
it be wisest to slip quietly away while
there was yet time? But his whole
soul revolted against this idea; for, un-
til the fatal speculative mania had
seized upon him, Mr.. Marchmont had
been man of honor and integrity, and
was greatly respected and esteemed by
all who knew him. 1t was, indeed,
his known high reputation which had
induced his old friend to place the
future of his children so unreservedly
In his hands.
'If You will consent to become their
trustee, Marchmont," he had said, 81
shall appoint no one to act with you. L
can trust you fully, and shall leave
ayarytb;nc, IN xyo,,r hon lie until uo,ol Il
is "a. know you'll do your best for
him and Ellie, and keep the money
where it is-in good, safe, non-specu-
lative investments.
Mr.. Marchmont, then a prosperous
merchant, had readily undertaken the
charge laid upon him, and fulfilled it
honestly enough until within year or
so before the time when our story
commences. But there had been a
time of great financial depression, and
Mr.. Marchmont's firm had suffered
like the rest of the world; and then,
in fatal hour, he had been tempted
TO gamble on the Stock Exchange; had
won, had lost, lost again, grown reck-
less, and now that 100000 which
should be handed over to Harold and
his sister in another six weeks was as
non existent as was Mr.. Marchmont's
own private fortune. Business was
most depressed still; and Jenkins, the
other partner, had begun to advocate
boldly facing the real condition of
things and winding up" the firm s
affairs; but Jenkins was, of course, ig-
norant of his partners embezzlement
of trust funds.
1t is one thing for business man
whose affairs have become involved
through unexpected misfortunes, to
"call meeting of creditors" and lay
the facts plainly before them, and an
other to have to confess that ustee
has-to put it bluntly-made away
with money that does not belong to
him. 1t was no small addition to the
torturing anxiety of the situation that
Jenkins was SO perpetually advocating
a voluntary winding up" of the firm,
and a candid statement of their affairs.
OF course, the crash and the discovery
were bound to come shortly; even al
ready Mr. Marchmont fancied that
some suspicious were arising in young
Williams mind, for the youth had be-
come rather pressing regarding the
fixture of date on which to go into
all the trust accounts, and have the in
vestments duly transferred. Alas! all
these investments" had been non
existent for some time. 1t had often
been desperate struggle to pay the
interest on the vanished capital, and
the delays which had occasionally en-
sued had perhaps aroused some suspi-
cion of the truth in Harold Williams
mind. On one pretence or another,
Marchmont had hitherto contrived to
put off the evil day Of reckoning, but
had been obliged to fix a date for it at
last. In another six weeks the truth
must be revealed: Mr.. Marchmont
must stand before the world as con.
victed thief, a betrayer of the trust Of
q dead friend, and Harold and his
sister must learn that owing to hit
embezzlement they were reduced from
comparative affiuence to absolute beg
gary. Small wonder that, as the
wretched man sat alone in his private
room, his face looked gray and lined
or that he glanced often at certain
locked drawer, in which some weeks
previously, he had placed tiny phia'