The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-16
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BERTHE arrived in Angel City
week behind her brother, and af-
forded him still more evidence of
the Interchangeable nature of femin-
unity. Berthe had come to get ner
share Of the estate, and she went
after it with the single-mindedness
OF rabbit-hound. Lerue knew a
lawyer-her kind of lawyer, an
other rabbit-hound-and she saw
him the day of her arrival; and
then Bunny must come to TINS law
yer's office, and with the help of
BERTHE and a stenographer have the
insides Of his mind turned out and
recorded; exactly what Dad had
said about his arrangements with
Mrs. Aylse Huntington Forsythe
Olivier-Dad hadn't said word
about it to BERTHE, alas, nor to any
one else; he had made a will, of
course, and that infamous woman
had destroyed it-Bertie knew that
with the certainty OF God.
And then, everything else about
Dads affairs that Bunny could re-
call; where he had kept his money
and his papers, what secret hind
ing-place for stocks and bonds he
may have had, what he had spent,
so far as Bunny could guess, who
had been in his confidence. And
fha,, 4ba c+ofovoo,,ke ,.yb;ob 1yo,.,, ~,
Roscoe rendered; and all the files of
Dads correspondence with Verne;
and the trusted young executives
Boiling and Hermann and Simmons
and the rest; and the bankers and
their clerks; and Dads secretary
whom BERTHE had brought back
from Paris with her-a. veritable
mountain Of detail, and Bunny was
required to attend all the sessions,
and be just as much a rabbit-hound
as the rest. He told himself that
it was his duty to the movement,
which so badly needed the aid of a
''fat angel"I
Right at the outset, there was
one bitter pill that BERTHE had to
swallow. Her lawyer advised her
that there was no chance of de-
priving Mrs. Alyse Ross of her half
of the estate. Bunny's testimony
was worth, in law, precisely moth
ing; and so, unless there should be
found another will, they must ac-
cept the inevitable, and combine
with the widow to get as much as
possible out of Vernon Roscoe.
Mrs. Ross's Paris lawyers had
named some very high priced law
yers in Angel City as their repre-
sentatives, and BERTHE had to swal-
low her rage and admit these men
to their counsels.
There were troubles enough to
need the very highest-priced law
yers. Accountants put to work on
the books of J. Arnold Ross, and on
the statements rendered by his
partner, and in a few days there
began to emerge out of the tangle
one colossal fact; over and above all
money that Dad had put into new
business ventures with Verne and
others, above all the cash which he
had handled through his bank, there
was more than ten million dollars
worth of stocks and bonds which
had disappeared without a trace.
Verne declared that these securities
had been taken by Dad, and used
by him for purposes unknown; and
BERTHE declared that was idiocy, and
that Vernon Roscoe was the biggest
thief in all history. Having access
to Dads safe deposit box, he had
simply helped himself to the con-
tents. And with rage BERTHE turned
upon her brother, asserting that he
was to blame-Verne knew that
Bunny would use his money to try
to overturn society, and so it was
only common sense to keep him
down.
Nor could Bunny deny that this
sounded reasonable. 1t was easy to
imagine Verne saying to himself
that Bunny was a social danger,
and BERTHE a social waster, and the
widow a poor half-wit, while he
Verne, was a capable business man,
who would use those securities for
the proper purpose-to bring more
oil out of the ground. Learning of
Dads death, Verne had quietly
transferred the securities from
Dads strong box to his own, before
the state inheritance tax commits
sioner came along to make his
records! Verne wouldn't consider
that stealing, but simply common
sense-the same as taking the
naval reserves away from gov
eminent which hadn't intelligence
enough to develop them.
Now BERTHE wanted to start a
lawsuit against her fathers part
ner, and put him on the stand and
make him tell everything about his
affairs; and Bunny, with the help
of the lawyers, had to argue with
her, and bear the brunt of her rage.
SO far, Verne had been careful to
put nothing into writing; and when
he took the stand, he would have