Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1908-03-21
Harrigan.
BY LULU JOHNSON.
BY LULU JOHNSON.
Copyrighted, 1908, by lesser Morgan,
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There was no uproar In the street,
only the long, single file of depositors
waiting patiently in the faint hope that
the bank might open its doors and let
them present at the window the checks
which they nervously fingered.
The scene being enacted under the
great glass dome within the bank pre-
sented a curious contrast to the almost
hopeless inactivity outside. In the di-
rectors' room the bank examiner and
the president sat at the long table
scanning piles of collateral.
At the bookkeepers' desks the clerks
were helping the staff of accountants
to examine the huge ledgers, and in
the wire cages the assistant cashier
and his staff were counting over the
stacks of bills and the great bags of
coin. The cashier, Douglas, was not
among those present.
Tim Harrigan looked up from his
desk as the assistant cashier, Mr.. War
ing, passed.
81 wish you'd count these" he said
give gone over it three times, and it
seems to be 5000 short"
Warning stepped into the cage and
ran over the bills with practiced touch
A second time he counted them and
then looked up.
THAT is just what we are trying to
find out" he said to Harrigan. For
menths Douglas has been slipping one
or two bills out of package. 1t was
easier than classifying the entries, and
as most of the money was cash reserve
the trick may have been going on for
year. 1t was when one of the pack
ages was paid out by mistake in Doug
las absence that the first suspicion was
aroused. l asked him about it when
he came back from lunch He gave an
explanation, but when he did not come
down yesterday morning suspicion was
confirmed, and somehow the news got
out and so the run started"
and a precious lot of work it is
making" said Harrigan GROSSLY as he
thought of the hard labor of the night
before and of the broken engagement
to take Nell to the theater. Warning
laughed knowingly.
Don't mind about the girl" he adj
vised. There's every prospect of get
ting through tomorrow, and you can
take her to the show then. Keep an
them to one side"
The assistant cashier passed on, and
Tim Harrigan bent to his work again.
Outside a hand organ grinder had
drawn up at the curb to cheer the
waiting line with popular songs. Tim
gritted his teeth as the familiar strains
of "No Wedding Bells For Me" came
through the ventiators. For mo-
ment he was half envious of the fee
ing cashier.
Douglas had taken plenty of money.
Twenty thousand from the previous
days receipts were known to be gone.
What else was missing could be told
only when the auditing was accom-
plished. Twenty thousand! Just one
of those crisp bills would enable him
to get married and set up the little
home for which he longed He and
Nell were saving, but their bank ac-
count grew with such pitiful slowness.
The hand organ changed its tune,
and Bascom, in the next cage, laughed.
There's your song, Tim" he said and
softly began to hum the words of the
chorus:
H-a double r-i-g-a-n spells Harrigan,
I'm proud of all the Irish blood that's in
me-
Divil a word a man can say agin ye,
H-a double r-i-g-a-n we see,
It's name that a shame never has been
connected with.
Harrigan-thats me.
Soon the organ was pushed ON to
more remunerative stands, but the
strains kept whirling through Tins
head. 1t was catchy air just then
popular In the vaudeville houses where
he and Nell sought their amusement,
and she delighted in singing it to him.
1t brought to his mind a picture of
the parlor in the little fiat where he
spent most of his evenings. 1t was
clean and neat and had the aspect of a
home. but the tiny fat was small, and
the children overran the place. He
wanted his own home alone with Nell.
Just one of the crisp bills which Doug
las had taken would have set them up
and have left a tidy balance besides.
Tim gritted his teeth at the thought.
lie counted the packages of bills me-
chanically, now and then throwing out
one In which the count was short. He
had completed the count of the hun
T. dred dollar bills and was working on
the thousands now.
Here, too, he found discrepancies. 1t
was as easy to slip a couple of these
notes from package of fifty as to alb
stract them from the packages Of a
lesser denomination. Douglas plan
mad been absurdly simple In a way.
lin wondered that others had not
thought of 1t. lie might have done 1t
himself with little fear Of detection.
lie might do it now with absolute i'm
punity.
HNI.