The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-06-22
tcspy,sns ,sss. BY Frederick A. Stokes conpany.l

ut is postmarked at the general posi-
Office at five o'clock" said Sturgis; I'll
was therefore mailed before or during
Chatham's visit to the bank. 1t may
have been mailed by Arbogast before
the scrubbing was done, or perhaps by
the chorewoman when she left thu
bank"
The reporter drew the letter from its
envelope and read:
1.-The Knickerboeker Bank,
New York, Dec. 81, 1896
my Darling Wife: When you receive
this letter shall be far away--a disgraced
criminal-and you will be worse than a
widow.
II dare not ask your forgiveness for the
trouble / am bringing upon you; for
realize all too clearly the extent of the
wrong have done you. But feel irresist-
ibly impelled to lay before you In all their
nakedness, as do before my own conscience,
the circumstances which have led to my
downfall. A knowledge Of these may per-
haps enable you to understand. In meas
ure, the temptation TO which 1 have sue
cumbed although I And 1t hard myself,
now that all is over, to realize how came
to yield to 1t.
Perhaps you may remember the cele-
bration Of my fftieth anniversary. We
were having most enjoyable evening In
the company Of the friends whom you had
invited to participate in the festivities.
when caller was announced. l was obliged
to leave our guests In order TO receive him
In the library. This man lost no time in
stating the nature of his business with me.
His name was Thomas Chatham; he was
an expert accountant, who had been en-
ployet at the knlckerbocker bank to ex-
anime the books. and he coolly informed
me that he had just discovered serious
error in my bookstore that had abled
a deposltor to overdraw his account by
large amount. At first l refused to be-
lieye him, although he submitted copies
from the books showing exactly how the
blunder had been made. When he intimated
that 1t only rested with me whether the
error should be reported to the bank,
Indignantly refused to listen to him. He
remained perfectly unrufied during our
interview and left me at last with the
statement that he would wait "A hours be-
fore handing in hts report to the presi-
dent.
my first step on reaching the bank
the next day was to verify Cha than S state
ments. Alas! they were only too true. There
was the terrible blunder staring me in the
face. l could not understand how ! had
come to make IT. but there it was, and
hotiis Iouio eApi"'i! ~ away hau noI'eo
against nope UP 10 'hls ti1ne' no" sd"
Clearly 'Hat was ruined man.
There was only one honorable course
open to me-to frankly confess my respon-
sibillty for the blunder and take the con-
sequences, whatever they might be. I
hesitated, and I was lost.
Il hesitated because felt that my posi-
ton was at stake. would not my error
hank since could ond No Nails ,ion for ~
In NV own evaso was "a ysars o,d
rhranL sroro tho ,sca.s,tv Of beyinni,g
again at the foot nj the ladder Sh;ch
had 30 ioboriouslv eIimhed after lifetime
nj concentrations nlodding n would he
no easy matter for me Ia find a mother mo-
sttion
.oTbe more Thought tbe matter oyer the
more I became convinced that there might
he another wav out Of NV trouble Was
II NOT nrobable that the denositor WIN, had
nrofted NV INV r,IstaLe haS don. co ;nno.
centIv3 II no would he not he yilIinv IN
renay the amount oyerdrswn9 At the
worst II he should refnse IN do th,s MIGHT
Il moi he nossih,e for mo 10 scrana tnsatbar
md horrow erouvh IN make gnod TIC do.
6ciencv? Tn thIu wav 7 con,d correct tho
b,under and no one would he Tho wiser for
n Rut what NJ that man rbs tbayn9 wouh
not b,s renort hatrov MAJ raca,,od hi.
intimat ,on that Tho nat,,ra ~ bis rsnor,
danonaad 80, ,,,,s.,f nWh,t a,5 y, aos
Nv that7 ProhahIv he would cot a nr,cs |
unon Mo .iIonna Tbia 1pnrIa add cons,d.
erablv to the amount should have to
raise b,t u,o,,,a nj ,h,s he hattor ostar oil
Ihan tba ,o.v ~ M, nosit;ono A. an, rat. |
7 should nnt ho 49,, tha ,,,or,. ~ f,r il
taning In h,s nronn,,i what.ra, :, ,,inh,
ho ''
THAT afternoon, as soon as the bank had |
closed, called at the address Chatham had |
given me. He evidently expected me.
With him was man whom he introduced
as james Withers, the depositor in whose
favor my blunder had been made. Had
l not been laboring under great excite
ment, 1t Is likely that my suspicious would
have been aroused by the strangcness of
Withers' presence in Chatham room. Tho
two men received me pleasantly, and the
alleged Withers. even before could breach
the subject, expressed his regret at hear
ing of the error which had been commit
ted, and assured me of his willingness to
reimburse the bank; but -ah! there was IN
ominous but He was short of ready
money just then; everything he had was
tied up In promising enterprise which
was bound to bring fl magnificent profit
In the course of few days If only he could
raise a few paltry hundreds to enable him
to hold out a little longer. If he failed
to scrape together this small amount, all
would be lost. lnsidiously and relentless
ly they drove ME toward the trap they had
prepared, and was weak enough to fall
Into It, Before the interview was over,
! had consented to allow Withers to still
further overdraw ! account, and l had
received his solemn promise to refund be-
fore the end of the week, the entire amount
he owed the bank. Then Chatham suggest