Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1917-08-03

MS DalkEupl COAupdAlSs Aou tOON a
chance for your own hand and put the
bank in the hole. Now I'd like tc ask
what you are going to do about it =
Smith looked up quickly. Somev here
Inside of him the carefully erected
walls of use and custom were tumDling
in strange ruins and out of the debris
another structure. formless as yet, but
Obstinately sturdy, was rising.
Il am not going to do what you want
me to do, Mr.. Dunham-step in and be
your convenient scapegoat," he said.
wondering little In his inner recesses
how he was finding the sheer brutal
man-cOurage to say such a thing TO the
president of the Lawrenceville Bank
and Trust. 81 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, l decline to accept it,"
The president tilted his chair and
locked his hands over one knee.
sit isn't question of shifting the
responsibility, Montague" he said,
dropping the bullying weapon to take
up another. 1.-THE loan was made in
my absence. You have taken the banks
money TO bolster up q failing concern
In which you are 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 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
tions and passions that were rending
him.
/ may not prove quite the easy
mark that your plan seems to pretg-
ure, Mr.. Dunham," he returned at
J length trying to say 1t calmly. "Just
what are you expecting me to dO?'
"Now you are talking more like a
grown man." was the presidents crnsty
admission. "YOu are in a pretty bad
boat, Montague. and that g why sent
for you tonight"
|
"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
you-they may not care to push the
charge against you. There is a train
west at ten o'clock. If were in your
place. I should pack a couple Of suit
/ kaI- Is fhn NJ
safe thing for you to do. If you need
any ready money"
It was at this point that J. Montague
| Smith rose up out of the stenOgrapher'
chair and buttoned his coat.
"Tf I need any ready money!" he
repeated slowly, advancing 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, 1t seems,
you are willing to bribe the only dam
gerous witness. I don't need money
badly enough to sell my good name for
it. l 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 chspge 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, 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
reacl, Of the man in the big swing
chair.
"You have It all cut and dried, even
to the setting OF the police trap, h'ven't
your" he gritted, hardly recognizing
his own voice. "You meant to hang
me first and Try your own case with the
directors nfterward. Mr.. Durham,
know you better than you think do !:
you are not only a crook-you are a
yellow-ilvered coward as well You
don't dare to press that buttonF"
While he was saying it, the president
had half risen, and the hand which
had been lowering over the bell-pushes
shot suddenly under the piled papers
in the corner OF the desk. When 1t
came out IL was gripping the weapon
F, which is never very far out of reach in
a bank.