Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-08-18
A LUCKY OUTCOME.

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 fnan-
cial disasters without either their knowl-
edge or their consent. 1t was the old, old
tale. Ill fortune in business, rash specu-
lative Investments to meet extravagant
expenditure, then Misrepresentation of
trust funds to repair past losses and enable
him to continue his gambling ventures
with the wild hope that previous misfor-
tunes could be retrieved, Now all was
gone, the fortune of his orphan clients as
well as his own, and in another month or
so, when Harold Williams 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.
"If you will consent to become their
trustee, Marchmont," the dying man had
said, ~ shall appoint no one to act with
you. l can trust you fully and shall leave
everything in your hands until Harold is
a. know you'll do your best for him
in good, safe, nonspeculative invest
ments."
Mr.. Marchmont, then prosperous mer
chant, 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.. Marohmont'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 reckless,
and now that $50, 900 which should be
handed over to Harold and his sister in
another six weeks was as nonexistent as
was Mr.. Marohmonts own private for
tune. Business was much depressed still,
and Jenkins, the other partner, had begun
to advocate boldly facing the real condi-
tion of things and winding up" the
firms affairs but jenkins was, of course,
ignorant of his partners embezzlement of
trust funds.
1t is one thing for a business man whose
affairs have become involved through I'M
expected misfortunes to "call meeting
of creditors" and lay the facts plainly be-
that trustee has-to put it bluntly-
made away with money which does not
belong to him. 1t was no small addition
to the torturing anxiety of the situation
that Jenkins was SO perpetually advocat-
ing voluntary winding up of the
firm and a candid statement of their af
fairs. OF course the crash and the discoy.
cry were bound to come shortly. Even
already Mr.. Marchmont fancied that some
suspicious were arising in young Will.
liams' mind, for the youth had become
rather pressing regarding the fixture of a
date on which to go into all the trust ac-
counts and have tho Investments duly
transferred. Alas, all these investments"
had been nonexistent for some time. 1t
had often been a desperate struggle to pay
the interest on the vanished capital, and
the delays which had occasionally ensued
had perhaps aroused some suspicion of the
truth in Harold Williams mind. On one
pretense or another Marchmont had hith-
erto 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.. March
mont must stand before the world as q con-
dead friend, and Harold and his sister
must learn that owing to his embezzle-
ment they were reduced from comparative
affluence to absolute beggary. Small Won
der that, as the wretched man sat alone in
his private room, his face looked gray and
lined, or that he glanced often at certain
looked drawer, in which some weeks pre-
yiusly he had placed a tiny phial.
r'There is always that means Of escape.
can never face the lad and his sister and
tell them that have ruined them"
thought Marchmont, who, to do him JUS
tice, was even more concerned to think of
the calamity which he had brought upon
his young friends than Of the probable
consequences to himself of his rash acts.
"If I'd only drunk the contents of that
bottle three years ago, before all this took
place, thought the merchant bitterly.
Heavily the days dragged OIL, jenkins
growing daily more insistent that they
should s'put up the shutters
cts not our fault, but simply our mis-
fortune, Marchmont, that we are in such
straits, the junior partner would often
say. st was those unexpected failures
abroad that dragged us down, but we're
quite clear, thank heaven, from any i'm
putation of reckless trading, and need
have no objection to face our creditors
fairly and let them go over our books for
themselves. As business men they will be
reasonable In the matter, and we're only
carrying on now at loss, and getting
worse every day"
True, the accounts Of the firm were clear
and clean enough. It was IN his private
capacity that Mr.. Marchmont had gam
bled and embeszled, but TO wind up his
business would preoipitate the discovery
Of his private malpraotices, and with the
natural desire Of putting off the evil day as
far as possible, Mr.. Marohmont still olung
to delay. Six weeks yet remained to him,
and then--at the worst--there were the
contents Of the vial.
Truth IL stranger than fiction" ID Q
trite remark, and the singular accidents"
which novelists are often ridiculed for
-