Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-08-07

aggregating @ million and O quarter
were missing. Then there was dia-
tribe on the possibility OF such an oc-
currence; on the folly of one-man
bank, and of board Of directors that
met only to lunch together and to
listen to a brief report from the
cashier, and on the poor policy of a
government that arranges q three or
four day exan1ina alton twice year, The
mystery, it insinuated, had not been
cleared by the arrest of the cashier.
Before now miner officials had been
used to cloak the misdeeds of men
higher UP. Inseparable as the words
speculation" and "peculation" have
grown to be, John Bailey was not
known to be in the stock market. His
only words, after his surrender, had
been Send for Mr.. Armstrong at
once" The telegraph message which
had finally reached the president Of
the Traders bank, in an interior town
in California, had been responded to
by a telegram from Doctor Walker, the
young physician who was travelling
with the Armstrong family. saying
that Paul Armstrong was very ill and
unable to travel.
That was how things stood that
Tuesday evening. The Traders bank
had suspended payment, and John
Bailey was under arrest, charged with
wrecking it; Paul Armstrong lay very
ill in California. and his only son had
been murdered two days before. | sat
dazed and bewildered. The children,s
money was gone; that was bad enough,
though | had plenty, if they would let
me share. But Gertrude's grief was
beyond any power of mine to comfort;
the man she had chosen stood accused
of colossal embezzlement-and even
worse. For in the instant that | sat
there seemed to see the coils closing
around John Bailey as the murderer OF
Arnold Armstrong.
Gertrude lifted her head at last and
stared across the table at Halsey.
"Why did he do it?" she walled
Couldn't you stop him. Halsey? II
was suicidal to go back"
Halsey was looking steadily through
| the windows of the breakfast room
but it. was evident he saw nothing.
st was the only thing he could do
Trude," he said at last. Aunt Ray
when | found Jack at the Greenwood
club last Saturday night, he was
frantic. can not talk until Jack tells
me may, but--he is absolutely limo
cent of all this, believe me. | thought
Trude and | thought, we were help
ing him, but it was the wrong way. He
came back. Isn't that the act of al
innocent man."
"Then why did he leave at all?"
/ asked, unconvinced. What innocent
man could run away from here at
o'clock in the morning? Doesn't i
look rather as though he thought i
impossible to escape?"
Gertrude rose angrily you are no
even just" she famed You don
know anything about it, and you con
denim him!"
81 know that we have all lost a grea
4 deal of money" | said. Il shall be
.Ilieve Mr.. Bailey innocent the momen
he is shown to be. You profess t
know the truth, but you can not tel
|me! What am | to Think"
/ Halsey leaned over and patted M
hand.
"You must take US on faith" b
said. "Jack. Bailey hasn't penny tina
doesn't belong to him; the guilty MAJ
will be known in day or So"
81 shall believe that when it
1 proved I said grimly. in the NEAR
time I take no one on faith. The lr
neses never do"
Gertrude, who had been standin
J aloof at a window turned suddenl.
But when the bonds are offered fo
sale. Halsey, won't the thief be d.
tected at once?"
Halsey turned with a superior smih
at wouldn't be done that way" h
said They would be taken out
. the vault by some one who had acceS
to It, and used as collateral for loa
in another bank. 1t would be possib
to realize eighty per cent of their fac
value"
"In CASH."
"In cash"
i "But the man who did the would /
, known"
} (To be countinued.)