Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1900-03-08
nut tho old man knew already, The

hope he had cherished on his home
ward way that he might find Bertha
unconscious OF the storm that threat
ened was dashed to the ground the
moment he perceived her and her hus-
bands agitation, The memory of that
evening on the veranda burned In his
mind, and In fury Of rage he de-
nanded, nercely;
Daughter, what Internal thing ID
this you've been doingY Are you madY
Have sou turned theft Ia Edmond In
ltY Or has Wilton-No, no. For Gods
sake don't tell me It IL my son'"
Then Bertha, to her husbands
amazement and dlsmay, fell down at
her fathers feet and confessed that
she, she had yielded 10 temptation and
stolen the missing bill, She hurledly
stated the miraculous chance that had
put Edmond in a position TO save her,
and inferrlng from her fathers knowl-
edge OF the affair, that the man who
had detected the shortage had conllded
to him his daughters responsibility
with a view OF screening her, besought
him to accept the friendly overture.
II would permit no mans dlshonor
for the sake Of me or NINE" he declar-
cd, For what you have done, you
must pay the penalty, Your impossible
combination has actually come to pass.
As the counter-check came to your
husband in his department, 80 1t has
come to me In the Registers, It was
/ myself who caught the short packet
which you had signed for.
Bertha clasped her hands in thanks
giving,
"Then, father, you alone know"
land one other"
"one other?" repeated Bertha,
aghast. "Who in your department
should know besides yourself?"
my chief" replied the old man, with
q face of adamant,
"You have reported 1t, knowing that
your own child"
Certainly, Fraud or oversight
yours or your brothers.; It was not for
me to consider. / am, first of all, a
servant OF the State"
They went back to the Treasury,
where Edmond at once delivered his
report,
Bertha found Mrs. Lawson impa-
tiently awaiting her. The Treasurer
had sent for the Head Of the Redemp-
ton Division to investigate an error in
one OF the packets which Bertha had
made up. Mrs, Lawson was highly in
dlgnant.
~ counted the Ranchers' packet my
SELF said she. II am positive there
were exactly hundred bills"
III one Ia missing" began Bertha,
but the senior lady interrupted her.
"Missing2 No, nothing is missing
at all. There is said to have been
one too many"
So many miracles had happened that
day that poor Bertha could only cape
at her in establishment. It was an
anomaly In arithmetic that one taken
from one hundred should leave one
and one. There came anoth-
err summons to the Treasurer. Another
report had come in of an error from
Mrs. Lawson's desk. The old lady was
almost in tears but she carried 1t of |
with a show Of jocosity.
EITHER there must be some con-
science money knocking about, or Mrs.
Bertha Hackett brings mascot to the |
treasury" said she, rs thu another
surplus thousand-dollar bill, sir?'
But this was the shortage which Ed
mond and Mr.. Loring had reported,
and it was happily met by the excess
In the other packet. SO, beyond an
tempered in mercy for the
manifest distress Of the girl, Bertha
got into no trouble, She held stoutly
to a theory Of the intervention Of
providence when discussing the matter
ut home, and her husband swept the
pious fancy away,
II reckon Providence don't supply
clerks with thousand-dollar
bills" said he you divided the pack
ct of 100 in two of so, as you thought.
But you counted the first backward,
from 100 to 80 inclusive, and that left
only forty-nine for the second packet,
But why didn't you tell Mrs. Lawson
you made one short?"
Fact is, Edmond, that combination
chatter of ours had got into my brain.
thought Wilton had pinched a bill,
and ] reckoned to do more for my
brother than Daddy would do for his
little girl"
Hal" observed old Caleb, filling his
pipe. Duty first, family afterwards,
and roguery never at any time, under
my circumstances"