The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1908-04-28
Harrigan.
BY LULU JOHNSON.
Copyrighted. 1908, by lesser Morgan.

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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-
scented curious contrast to the almost
hopeless inactivity outside. In the d.
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.
1--WE gone over it three times, and it
seems to be 5000 Short
Waring stepped into the cage and
ran over the bills with practiced touch.
A second time be counted them and
then looked up.
''That is just what we are trying to
find out" he said to Harrigan. "For
months 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 / 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 1t 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. Waring
laughed knowingly.
Don't mind about the girl" he ad-
vised. There's every prospect of get
ting through tomorrow, and you can
take her to the show then. Keep an
eye peeled for short packages and lay
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 mo Wedding Bells For Me- came
through the ventilators. For a 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 &C
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 word a man can say agin ye,
II Ill - -
It's name that shame never has been
connected with,
Harrigan-that's me.
Soon the organ was pushed on to
more remunerative stands, but the
strains kept whirling through Tins
head. 1t was a 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 fat 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 tidy balance besides.
Tim gritted his teeth at the thought.
He 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
bred dollar bills and was working on
the thousands now.
Here, too, he found discrepancies. 1t
was as easy to slip couple Of these
notes from package of fifty as to alb
stract them from the packages of
lesser denomination. Douglas plan
had been absurdly simple in way.
Tim wondered that others had not
thought Of 1t. He might have done 1t
himself with little fear Of detection.
He might do it now with absolute i'm
punity.
The thought staggered him for an in
slant, and he leaned uncertainty
against the side of the cage. On the
polished counter before him were a
score of packages from which bills
were missing. What was to prevent
his slipping a couple of bills from a
perfect package and toss it on the short
count pile? 1t would be blamed on
Douglas. No one would ever suspect
One bill would enable him to marry
Nell and fit up home such as they
had dared to dream Of. 1t required
only a single deft motion. He could
slip The bills off the pile and into his
pocket. The fiction of legacy would
explain his sudden affiuence, and no
one would ever dream of his transgres-
sion
He was leaning against the wire par
tition that separated him from Bas-
CONS compartment. and the clerk look
ed up.
'Tired out, TimT' he asked kindly.
Its tough Job. I'll be glad when it's
done. I'm as sick of money as girl
in a candy store is Of chocolates
Tim nodded. and Bascom went on
counting the rolls of gold coin. whis-
ting softly as he worked. Tim started
as the tune caught his attention. 1t
was "Harrigan," and Bascom was
whistling the chorus:
H-a double r-i-g-a-n, you see,
It's name that a shame never has been
connected with,
Harrigan-thats me.
Tim slipped off the high stool and
went over to the water cooler. The
iced water reduced his fever, and he
went back to the dull drudgery of the
count, his momentary madness gone
He was proud of his name. He never
could face Nell burdened with secret
knowledge Of guilt; he never could
offer her home that was bought with
stolen money. The song had saved
him.
1t was late In the afternoon when he
tabulated the results Of his count and
took them to the president. The gray
haired old man gave sigh Of relief as
he saw the total.
1T is not as bad as had feared" he
said slowly, passing the memorandum
to the examiner. Douglas hit US pref
ty hard, but he did not deal death
blow"