Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-05-31


Smith saw the solid foundations of his
small world-the only world he had
ever Notwithstanding to a threatened
dissolution.
"You may remember that advised
against the making Of that loan when
Westfall first spoke of it," he said,
after he had mastered the Fremont
tory chill Of panic. ut was bad risk
for him and for u.s."
81 suppose you won't deny that the
loan was made while I was away in
New York." was the challenging re-
joinder.
''It was. But you gave your sanction
before you went East
The president twirled his chair to
face the director and brought his palm
down with a smack upon the desk
slide.
"No!' he stormed. 'What I told
you to do was to look up his collateral;
and you took a snap judgment and let
him have the money! Westfall is your
friend, and you are a stakeholder in
his bankrupt company. You took a
chance for your own hand and put the
bank in the hole. Now I'd like to ask
what you are going to do about it."
Smith looked up quickly. Somewhere
inside of him the carefully erected
walls of use and custom were tumbling
in strange ruins and out of the debris
another structure, formless as yet, but
obstinately sturdy, was rising.
81 am not going to do what You want
me TO 90, Mr.: Dunham- IN ana De
your convenient scapegOat," he said
wondering little in his inner recesses
how he was finding the sheer brutal
man-courage to say such thing to the
president of the LaWrenceville Bank
and Trust. ST suppose you have rea-
sons of your own for wishing to shift
the responsibility for this particular
loss to my shoulders. But whether you
have or haven't, / decline to accept it."
The president tilted his chair and
locked his hands over one knee.
'It isn't a question of shifting the
responsibility, Montague" he said,
dropping the bullying weapon to take
up another. "The loan was made in
my absence. You have taken the banks
money to bolster up a failing concern
in which you are a stakeholder. Go to
any lawyer in Lawrenceville-the best
one you can Finland he'll tell you ex-
actly where you stand
While the big clock over the vault
entrance was slowly ticking off a full
half-minute the young man whose fu-
| ture had become so suddenly and so
| threateningly involved neither moved
! nor spoke, but his silence was no meas
ure of the turmoil of conflicting emo
lions and passions that were rending
| him.
81 may not prove quite the easy
mark that your plan seems to prefig-
ure, Mr.. Dunham," he returned at
| length, trying to say it calmly. "Just
what are you expecting me to do?"
| Snow you are talking more like
grown man." was the presidents crusty
admission. "You are in a nlrtty bad
boat, Montague, and that is why I sent
for you tonight
"Well?" said the younger man.
"YOu can see how it will be. IF
can say to the directors that you have
already resigned-and if you are not
where they can too easily lay hands on
| y0u-they may not care to push the
charge age'nst you. There is a train
west at ten o'clock. If I were in your
place, I should pack a couple of suit
| cases and take it. That is the only
safe thing for you to do. If you need
any ready money"
1t was at this point that J. Montague
| Smith rose up out of the stenOgrapher's
| chair and buttOned his coat.
"Tf I need any ready money" he
repeated slowly, advancing a step to-
ward the presidents desk. THAT is
where you gave yourself away, Mr..
Durham You authorized that loan,
and did it because you were willing to
use the banks money to put Carter
Westfall in the hole so deep that he
could never climb out. Now, it seems,
you are willing to bride the only dam
gerous witness. I don't need money
badly enough to sell my good name for
it. I shall stay right here in Lawrence
vile and fight it out with you! -
The president turned abruptly to his
desk and his hand sought the row of
electric bell-pushes. With a finger
resting upon the one marked ''police,"
he said: "There isn't any room for
argument, Montague. You can have one
more minute in which to change your
mind. If you stay. you'll begin your
fight from the inside Of the county
jail"
Now there had been nothing in John
Montague Smiths well-ordered quar-
ter century of boyhood, youth, and
business manhood to tell him how to
cope with the crude and savage emer-
gency which he was confronting. But
in the granted minute Of respite some
thing within him, a thing as primitive
and elemental as the crisis with which
it was called upon to grapple, shook it
self awake. He stepped quickly across
the intervening space and stood under
the shaded desk light within arms
reach of the man in the big swing
chair.
"You have it all cut and dried, even
to the setting of the police trap, haven't
your" he gritted, hardly recognizing
his own voice "You meant to hang
me first and try your own case with the
directors afterward. Mr.. Durham, I
know YOU better than you think I do: