"My name is Watson. Are you stopping in the camp, Mr. King?"
"I expect to be here but a short time. How is the mining business?"
"Not much activity just now in this section. Some of the old mines are shut down and there is but little prospecting4 being done. Are you interested in the mining business?"
"No, not particularly."
"There is a small mine near here that could be purchased at a bargain. A couple of crooks5 got the old man who owns it in debt to them and took a mortgage on the mine. The old man is very illiterate6 and did not understand the contracts that he had with these men. He is forced to sell to save himself. If he loses all that he has in this mine it is quite likely that he will be ruined for life, as he is too old to come back. I would be very sorry to see anything like that happen."
"It's a shame that there are individuals who will stoop to crookedness7 to beat men who are along in years out of the savings8 of a lifetime."
"Back in my home town——"
"What is your home town?" asked Watson, interrupting King.
"Wilford Springs. I was going to tell you about a man by the name of Babcock who used to own the controlling interest in a bank at Zala. (Watson gave a start and his face whitened.) This man Babcock was in some sort of a deal with a banker in Wilford Springs. One night the Wilford Springs banker, whose name is Jim Stover, went to Zala and had a conference with Babcock. The next day Babcock turned the bank over to him. That afternoon Babcock was injured in an automobile10 accident, and that night his cashier disappeared." (The bookkeeper became very nervous. He got up, poked11 the fire and then came back to his desk and sat down. He clasped his hands together to hold them from shaking.)
"Did Babcock recover from the accident?"
"Not fully12. He suffers a great deal from a pain in his head at times, and he has no memory of anything that happened before the accident in which he was injured."
"You say he can't remember anything that happened before he was injured?"
"No, not a thing."
"Can he remember things that have happened since he was hurt?"
"Yes, that is the strange part about his condition. He can remember everything that has transpired13 since he was injured as well as the average person."
"Very strange indeed," Watson commented.
"When his daughter Ruth inquired about the business Stover informed her that he had purchased her father's bank stock. When she asked about the money she was told by Stover that her father had owed him an amount of money equal to the stock and he had taken it to help her father out."
"This Stover claimed that Babcock was indebted to him?"
"Yes. Babcock has been trying to remember what became of his money. He thinks that he has recalled the combination to the safe and that the man to whom he showed the combination robbed him."
"I must be going. My wife will be waiting supper for me. I would like to talk longer with you. Could you come back to the office later in the evening?"
"Yes, I can come any time."
"How will eight o'clock be?"
"That will be all right."
When Watson reached his little cottage at the edge of the mining camp, his wife, a slender, blue-eyed girl scarcely twenty years of age, met him on the porch. "Dick, you are late tonight. I have been waiting dinner for twenty minutes. Why, what is the matter?" she asked, noticing that he had a worried look on his face. "Are you ill?"
"No, just worried," he replied.
"What has gone wrong?"
"I will tell you after a while."
"Come on in and get ready for dinner, then. Father is restless this evening. I think this damp weather is affecting him. It seems like he always breathes harder when the weather is damp."
The evening meal passed in silence except that John Hinds14, Mrs. Watson's father, who was a consumptive, talked about the damp atmosphere and its unpleasant effects on his breathing apparatus15 and expressed thanks that there were but few damp days in Arizona. Watson answered his father-in-law in an absent-minded way. Mrs. Watson was worried because her husband could not eat, consequently she had no appetite.
After the meal was over John Hinds went into the living room, leaving Watson and his wife alone in the dining room. An hour later when Watson left the house his wife's eyes were red with crying. "It's awful," she said, "but I suppose it must be done."
When he reached the mine office he found King waiting for him at the door.
"Waiting for me! Am I late?"
"I think I am a little ahead of time.
"It's a little damp and chilly," Harold remarked, when they had entered the office and he had removed his top coat.
"Yes, and damp weather is rather unusual in this country."
"So I have been told."
The bookkeeper took a seat at his desk and Harold King seated himself opposite.
"I was much interested in the story you were telling me about that Zala banker," Watson began. "You say that Stover claimed that Babcock owed him and that he took the bank stock to settle the debt?"
"Yes."
Watson took a box of cigarettes from his pocket and offered the box to Harold.
"No, thank you, I do not use them."
"This is one of my bad habits," Watson explained, as he took a cigarette from the box and lighted it. "I usually smoke a package a day, and some days, when anything worries me, I use two packages. You spoke16 of the cashier's leaving the night of the same day that Babcock was injured. What is your opinion? Do you think that this cashier robbed Babcock or was an accomplice17 in robbing him?"
"No, I don't think that; but I think that this cashier can give some valuable information."
"Well, you are right. I am that cashier."
"I knew that. I came here on purpose to see you."
"You did! How did you locate me?"
"I located you by means of the eye of the Invisible Empire."
"What! You located me through the Ku Klux Klan?"
"Yes, I had three million secret service men looking for you."
"I have heard that there are some Klansmen here, but I do not know any of them."
"One never knows when the Invisible Eye is on him. Your employer, or fellow employee, may be a Knight18 of the Ku Klux Klan and you never suspect it."
"You have located me all right, what do you want?"
"I want the inside information of how Babcock was robbed."
Watson threw away the stub of his cigarette and lighted another, at which he took several strong pulls before he replied.
"I am going to tell you the whole story. I shall keep back nothing. I was employed in the Zala bank only a short time. I bought out my predecessor19. I purchased his three thousand dollars' worth of stock in order to secure the job. I did not have quite enough money, and he gave me time on four hundred dollars. Mr. Babcock and I got on splendidly together. In eight months I had paid off the indebtedness on my stock.
"Mr. Babcock was the leader of one political faction20 in Zala. The faction of which he was leader was victorious21 in the city election. Babcock was elected city treasurer22. As treasurer he became the custodian23 of fifty thousand dollars, which he deposited in his own bank. The opposing political faction started a second bank and made plans to put Babcock out of business. They circulated the report that his bank was in a failing condition.
"When Mr. Babcock heard the report that was being circulated he attempted to counteract24 it. Every evening after banking25 hours he would get in his car and drive until nine or ten o'clock, talking with farmers, telling them that the report that his bank was in a failing condition was a malicious26 attack started on him by his political enemies. However, there was considerable alarm among many of the farmers who had money in his bank.
"Friday afternoon he said to me, 'I fear that the farmers will make a run on the bank tomorrow. There are always a lot of country folk in town on Saturday. There are some of these farmers who are alarmed—fear spreads rapidly in a crowd. I must be prepared. You take my car and drive to Wilford Springs and borrow thirty thousand dollars from Jim Stover to tide us over.'
"I took plenty of collateral27 and did as directed. Stover pumped me as to the condition of the bank and elicited28 from me the information that Babcock had fifty thousand dollars of the city funds in his own bank unsecured in any way.
"After hearing my request for a loan, he said, 'I will go down with you this evening and fix Babcock up all right.' That evening he loaded fifty thousand dollars into his car and we drove to Zala. The conference lasted until a late hour, at the home of Babcock. Stover impressed on his mind again and again that with the small amount of cash that Babcock had on hand, if there were a run on his bank the following day, the bank would fail and with the city funds in his own bank it would be very embarrassing for him and might result in criminal charges being brought against him. Mr. Babcock was extremely nervous. 'What would you advise me to do?' he asked. 'Make an assignment to me. If a run is made on the bank I can show them that I have bought you out and placed all of my resources back of it,' Stover advised. Babcock agreed to this, and the next morning Babcock transferred his stock to Stover with the understanding that it should be reassigned to him when the danger of a run had passed."
"Were you present when the transfer of stock was made?" King asked.
"Yes."
"Was anything said about Stover's taking the stock in payment of money due him from Babcock?"
"Not a word. I am sure Babcock never owed Stover one cent. After the assignment of the stock Babcock showed Stover the combination to the safe."
"Do you remember the combination to the safe?"
"No, I don't believe I do now. I haven't had any occasion to recall it."
"Mr. Babcock tried so hard to recall the combination to some safe and finally said he had recalled it."
"Do you know the combination as he recalled it?" asked Watson.
"Yes. Two turns to the right, to the left to forty, then to the right to thirty-two."
"I believe that was it. I am pretty sure it was. Wait a minute, I have it in an old bank pass book. He opened a drawer and took out a pass book and read, two turns to the right, to the left to forty, then to the right to thirty-two. By George, he had it right!"
"Yes, and he had it right about the one to whom he taught this combination robbing him," commented Harold.
"After showing Stover the combination Babcock left the bank. A run was made on the bank and several thousand dollars were drawn out. Stover convinced the depositors by the display of the fifty thousand and the statement that he had purchased the bank that there was no occasion for alarm. The run was stopped and most of the money that had been withdrawn29 was returned.
"When I returned to the bank after eating my noon lunch I found a stranger there looking through the accounts. Mr. Stover introduced him as Charles Finch30, the new bank examiner. I had just read a few days before of Mr. Finch's appointment.
"This bank examiner found a note for thirty-five hundred dollars made by a prominent farmer that was sixty days past due. He called the farmer up and asked him to come to the bank at once and take care of it. When the farmer came he declared that he had never given the note. That evening Stover and Finch called me into the directors' room. Finch showed me that there was a shortage of thirty-five hundred dollars. The note that was, according to the farmer, a forgery31 was shown me. Babcock and myself both loaned money. It was our custom when making a loan to put our initials on the margin32 to show who was responsible for making the loan. On the lower left hand margin were the initials D.W. I told Stover and Finch that I would swear before God that I had never seen the note before, but the strange part was that the note was written in my hand writing and the initials were exactly as I make them. The bank examiner showed me the entry of the three thousand dollar loan on the books; where the entry in the bills receivable book and the credit on the cash book were both in my hand writing. After this forged note had been made the books still showed a shortage of five hundred dollars.
"Again and again I told them that I knew nothing of these things."
"'You'd have a hard time convincing a jury of that,' the bank examiner told me.
"I was forced to admit that the evidence looked strong against me. Finally, when I was almost crazy, Stover said, 'Young man, I will give you one chance. You pay the five hundred dollars that the books show the cash is still short, assign your stock over to me and I will take care of the three thousand dollar note. You leave the country tonight and never return.'
"I told him that that was impossible, as I did not have the five hundred dollars. Finally he told me how sorry he felt for me and how anxious he was to keep me out of the penitentiary33 and that he would pay the other five hundred and give me two hundred dollars to leave on. He then gave me some good advice as to my future conduct. I was perfectly34 innocent, but I had no friend in the West, except Mr. Babcock, and he had been injured in an auto9 accident that afternoon and his life was despaired of. In my excited imagination I saw the cold stern walls of the penitentiary loom35 before me. I accepted Stover's offer. (During this recital36 Harold listened intently and occasionally made notes.)
"That night I left Zala on the midnight train. I went to Trinidad, Colorado, and remained there for two months. I did not find a job that suited me there and decided37 to come farther west. I had not been on the train long when I noticed a pretty girl a few seats behind me. After several hours of loneliness I changed my seat directly across the aisle38 from her and engaged her in conversation. She told me that her name was Irene Hinds. She was from Indiana. She was on her way here to join her father. She told me that her father was tubercular and had come to Arizona for his health, two months previous. Before that he had spent several months in the Middle West but had not improved much.
"I became much interested in Irene and decided to change my destination and try to find employment here, where she was to make her home with her father. I secured employment the day I landed, as bookkeeper in this office. After I had been here a few days I asked permission to call on Miss Hinds. Imagine the shock which I received when she introduced me to her father, whom I recognized at once as Finch, the bank examiner. I was sure he recognized me, but he said nothing about our having met before. I was alarmed and at the same time curious as to why he was here passing under the name of Hinds. I was sure there was something wrong in his life or he would have forbidden his daughter to associate with me, whom he knew as a defaulter. Finally he did object when it became evident to him that Irene and I were in love. After a short courtship we were married against his wishes. The night we were married he was very much agitated39 during the early part of the evening. When the minister and our young friends had left he made a confession40 to us. He said he had been for several months a guest in the Stover home at the time Babcock made the transfer of stock to Stover and Stover took charge of the Ranchmen's Bank at Zala. My father-in-law, John Hinds, is a cousin of Jim Stover. He was for many years a bookkeeper for a firm in Indianapolis. He is a professional penman. For several years he fought against tuberculosis41 but continued to work. Finally the doctors told him that if he expected to live any length of time he must go West. He went to Stover at Wilford Springs. After several months there the doctors told him that he should come to Arizona. He was without funds.
"The day that Stover took charge of the Ranchmen's Bank in Zala he 'phoned to his cousin to come down. When he arrived Stover told him if he would do a little job for him he would give him a thousand dollars with which to go to Arizona to recover his health. After much persuasion42 and the painting of several graveyard43 scenes by Stover he consented. He impersonated the bank examiner, forged the note, and made the false entries in the books, imitating my writing.
"On our wedding night he insisted that he go back and expose his cousin so that I could clear my name and recover the value of my bank stock out of which Stover had defrauded44 me. As I thought I was the only one wronged, Irene and myself refused to allow him to do so. I am sure that he would never have done what he did, Mr. King, if he had not thought it was to save his life.
"I never knew until you told me this evening that Stover had robbed Babcock. I talked the matter over with Irene, and while of course it is a hard thing for a woman to consent to her father's taking a course of action which will send him to the penitentiary, and I never would have brought this anguish45 to her on my own account, yet she agreed with me it must be done."
"Have you talked to your father-in-law?"
"No. He wasn't so well as usual today, and we thought we would wait until the sun is shining when he is sure to be feeling better."
"I am sure he will. He has always told Irene and myself that he must go sometime and do what he could to right the wrong he had committed against me.
"I never intended to permit him to do it, but now that we need his confession in order to assist Babcock he must go even though it sends him to the penitentiary."
When the matter was presented to John Hinds the following day, he assured Harold that he would waive extradition and come to Wilford Springs whenever he was needed.
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1
ledger
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| n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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prospecting
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| n.探矿 | |
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crooks
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| n.骗子( crook的名词复数 )；罪犯；弯曲部分；（牧羊人或主教用的）弯拐杖v.弯成钩形( crook的第三人称单数 ) | |
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6
illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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7
crookedness
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| [医]弯曲 | |
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8
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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9
auto
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| n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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11
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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12
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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13
transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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14
hinds
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| n.（常指动物腿）后面的( hind的名词复数 )；在后的；（通常与can或could连用）唠叨不停；滔滔不绝 | |
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15
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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18
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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19
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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custodian
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| n.保管人，监护人；公共建筑看守 | |
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24
counteract
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| vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消 | |
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banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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26
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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collateral
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| adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品 | |
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28
elicited
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| 引出，探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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30
finch
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| n.雀科鸣禽(如燕雀，金丝雀等) | |
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31
forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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32
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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33
penitentiary
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| n.感化院；监狱 | |
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34
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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35
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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36
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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37
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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38
aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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39
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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40
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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41
tuberculosis
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| n.结核病，肺结核 | |
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42
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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43
graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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44
defrauded
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| v.诈取，骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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46
waive
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| vt.放弃，不坚持(规定、要求、权力等) | |
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47
extradition
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| n.引渡（逃犯） | |
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