The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-10
THE ITORLD,S WAY.

| Allan Wentworth had been cashier
of the leading bank of San Francisco
for six years. On his 21st birthday his
| fathers influence had placed him in
| that responsible position. He had never
been obliged to angle diseouragingly in
| Improbable waters, as is the common
| lot of boys not born with the tradi-
| tional silver spoon in their mouths.
] Allan Wentworth, ST., had fought the
| breakers in the surging whirlpool of
money getting and money losing With
| sufficient winnings on his side to en-
able him to start his only son in the
| exciting game of finance many points
! ahead of contemporary beginners.
| Young Wentworth dashed right into
the battle of the business world without
| and preliminaries whatever.
Six years he worked continuously
and well, with attention unhagging
eyincing the great business tact, the
utmost fidelity, the most scrupuloua
| honesty, Association with older men
advanced him much beyond his years.
\ At the age of 27 he was rightfully rec
ognized all over the state of California
| as the young Napoleon of finance, the
| model of every fathers son, the coveted
parti for every mothers daughter, He
selected from the social whirl Miss
Sylvia Lawrence, as his life partner.
| After the necessary days, grudgingly
! allotted by this busy man, for the
honeymoon, the newly made husband
rushed to his office with the avowed
purpose of making up for lost time"
To him business was all absorbing.
He never left, carried it with him al
ways. In his home at his table, by his
f1reside; it was the theme with which
he entertained his young wife's friends
when he had time to speak to them:
it was his political law, his religious
dogma, his theory of social economy,
his domestic discourse, his everything.
*
But few months elapsed. Even
while their honeymoon was in its first
quarter, clouds of such impenetrable
thickness so obscured the sky of these
young people that they needs must
grope in the darkness of deepest sor-
row and AFFECT shame.
Allan Wentworth, the steady going,
the perfectly proper Allan Wentworth
was defaulter, fleeing for fear of ar
rest, sneaking semblance of his old
time fascinating, magnetic personality,
afraid to look his brother man in the
facet!
Pity only intensified the wife's love.
Without murmur, Sylvia shared AL
lan's shame. Faithfully she followed
him in his hde-and-seek game with
the officers of the law. She could never
forget her terror when Allan, with
cruel bluntness, told her of his crime,
nor how her heart. almost failed her
when he trembling told her that they
must leave their home that very night,
stealthily on foot for the sleuth
hounds of the law were already on his
tracks. How nervously his hand
twitched when he took hers, and his
furtive eye glanced in the darkness as
together they stepped out into the
night. How with nervous energy he
hurried her along the darkest streets
How cautiously they entered the rail-
road station and took a train south
bound. How at midnight they left the
car at a small town and Immediately
sought refuge in a dingy railroad ho-
tel.
When on the morning following |
Wentworth's flight a note was found |
upon his office desk blazonng to the
world his unfaithfulness, his brother
officials treated it as huge, though |
indiscreet joke. 1t was without an
envelope, and had prying eyes seen 1t
a rumor might have been started not |
at all pleasant for the institution 1t
read:
II am defaufter to the bank. have |
abstracted many thousands of dollars
how many only a close examination of /
my books will show All is gone!
ALLAN Wentworth"
When the usual hour for his appear
ance had passed and he had not come, |
a mild surprise was expressed by his |
associates. When noon arrived and he
was still absent the surprise had be-
come a subject of anxious discussion.
Such a thing had not occurred in the
six years Of his service. When the
returned and said that Mr. |
Wentworth had left home the night be-
fore and that no one knew just when
nor where he had gone, the anxious
became fearful wonder-won-
der engendered suspicion; suspicion
once born, breathless, it lives and
grows into belief.
The note was brought forth and ex-
amined infinitely. The writing was
but it was his, Enthusiastically;
most irregular, but it was there.
1t was useless to try to hush the
matter The cashiers confession of
guilt had been made too publicly for
that Soon there We're whispers that
dare not be spoken. Then rumors that
would not down began to float in the
air, first softly and vaguely, then loud
ar and yet louder they We're agitated
in tones of holder assertions, until the
bank was gradually thrown into con-
The president called a
meeting of the directors
'Well, can scarcely believe my own
eyes,, he said as he finished reading
Wentworths note to them. There is
1ne thing sure" he added with bated
breath 'if Allan Wentworth has de-
'aulted, 1t must be for enough to close
.hese doors. He would never do any
hing small; no, not even small
.heft."
Experts were put upon the books at
,nce, and private detectives engaged to
race the whereabouts Of the fugitive. |
Haven't you noticed how queerly !
has been acting lately?"