Читать книгу The Broken Trail - Harold Bindloss - Страница 7
ОглавлениеFRIENDSHIP'S CALL
The bank house, at the block corner, fronted Main Street, but at one side a small garden lot bordered a short avenue, and Emerson, arriving after the office was shut, saw Harden and Miss Forbes on a bench under a shade-tree. Although the avenue was quiet and led only to the woods, her light-colored summer clothes were conspicuous, and since Margaret Forbes was not at all a fool, Emerson imagined she knew her being there might excite some remark. In fact, he wondered whether it was not a sort of challenge to all who might be interested.
Margaret, so to speak, declared herself her lover's champion, and Emerson had grounds to imagine Keith needed some support. When he hesitated in the path she got up. Her color came and went; Harden's look was fixed.
"I am going, but Keith would like you to stop," she said. "You are his pal and I dare say you can guess what we talked about. Keith is rather noble. He sticks to conventions that I suppose were used in the Old Country, some time since."
"In the circumstances, I took the proper line," Harden rejoined with a touch of embarrassment.
"He wanted to break our engagement, and although I refused, I doubt if he is quite resigned," Margaret resumed. "Keith certainly is not selfish, but I expect scruples like his are an awkward load. However, your coming along was lucky. I want all his friends to know the engagement stands."
Emerson smiled. Margaret Forbes, moved by mixed emotions, was remarkably attractive. Her eyes sparkled, she carried herself finely, and her look was proud. Garnet thought an artist might use her for a model of fearless youth.
"Something of the sort was obvious, and I like your grit," he replied. "I suppose the implication is, the bank has no more use for Keith. Well, it's not very important and promotion's slow. He will soon get a better post."
Margaret colored. "Then, you don't yet know——Keith, of course, dared not resign. He's sentenced to polite imprisonment at the directors' pleasure."
Emerson's look was puzzled, and she resumed: "He must take a routine job at the Winnipeg office, where he will have no responsibility and, I suppose, he can be watched. The directors do not mean to run another risk. Besides, if they find out something fresh to implicate him, they will know where he is; but Keith will give you particulars. If I were rich and influential, I'd spend all I had and would not rest until I broke their bank. Well, I'm not rich, and there's not much use in storming. Sometimes one must be practical and, if you like, you may go with me to the post-office."
Harden signed Emerson and he went, but at the corner of the block Margaret stopped.
"Keith needs all his friends, and now is the time for them to prove how much their friendship's worth."
"He can reckon on mine," Emerson replied. "All the same, it's perhaps not valuable, and I had fixed to start for the Old Country in a few days. Do you think I ought to stop?"
"Not at all. You are going to visit with Keith's relations and he is horribly sensitive. To feel that some might doubt him is not the least of his trouble."
"But he ought not to need a champion at home. His father and sister know he had nothing to do with the robbery."
"I was thinking about his stepmother," Margaret rejoined. "She has no son, and it's possible she is jealous——"
Emerson reflected that Harden had said something like that, but Margaret went on: "Since I have not met Mrs. Harden, I may be unjust, but to study her might be useful. At all events, Keith imagines your firm conviction that he is innocent will be some comfort to his father. There's your line; you're the leading witness for the defense. Then it's possible the thieves will try to negotiate some of the foreign bonds in London or Paris. The robbery was cleverly planned, and the crooks might have accomplices in Europe. Well, you will be in the Old Country."
"I am not a banker," Emerson remarked. "The chance of my finding a clue is small."
"I suppose that is so," Margaret agreed. "However, to be willing is the important thing, and sometimes one's luck is better than one thinks. Well, you do not boast, but Keith trusts you, and if you can help, we know you will."
She let him go, and Emerson turned back thoughtfully. The girl's passionate indignation, and perhaps her trust, moved him; he had not thought to see Miss Forbes carried away. After all, to know people properly was hard. For example, Keith was a first-class sort; but Emerson had not thought him the man to inspire a girl, whose calm reserve was known, to romantic ardor. When he reached the bench Harden gave him a cigarette.
"Margaret is generous and stanch as steel," he said in a quiet voice, as if he apologized for allowing her to persuade him. "However, I see you are puzzled. You don't get things yet?"
"The bank suspects you! Are your Montreal bosses dippy?"
"Oh, well, their doubts are not very strange. To begin with, the safe was not broken, and only I and Walthew could work the lock. Steve is young, and clever crooks would hesitate to use a raw lad. Then, you see, I asked for the extra two days. I was away from camp all night, and when I started I refused to state where I was going. In the morning I told the boys a romantic tale. All know I'm a pretty good river-Jack, and only a beginner leaves his canoe where she might drift away. In fact, I don't yet see how she did float off the bank."
"It certainly is awkward," Emerson agreed.
"I'm arguing like a bank president, and I want you to weigh the evidence as if you did not know me. Since the securities were stolen I have tried to do so and I'm not much encouraged. Had I paddled hard down the lake, I might have got the local train for Miscana, and Walthew thought he saw me in town; then Marshall declares somebody very like me stole on board the cars. You see, if I'd driven an automobile over the old bush trail and swum the river, I might have made camp for breakfast. A strange car was in town, and when I got back I had rather obviously been in the water."
"But I imagine the bank's inspector knows you are soon to be married and have built an expensive house. It does not look as if you had meant to light out."
"When I built the house I did not know I might handle a very large sum, part of which was in bonds that a crook with foreign confederates might negotiate," Harden rejoined. "So far, my employers have good grounds for suspicion, and although that's all, suspicion is fatal to a man who handles others' cash. Well, unless the directors are forced, I don't suppose they will allow the police to get after me; a bank hates to admit it could be robbed by its servants. They will keep me in Winnipeg for perhaps twelve months; and then, if nothing fresh transpires, politely indicate that I ought to look for another job. When I went I would, of course, be done for. And I'm engaged to marry Margaret, who will not let me go."
Emerson frowned. Keith's argument was logical, and nothing was to be gained by pretending it did not carry weight.
"Very well. Our plan's to spot the thief, and I allow it's hard——" said Garnet, and stopping for a moment, as if he saw a light, resumed: "I guess I've got it! You thought somebody lurked about the camp. Suppose he studied up all you did and got to know you were not going back to the office on the day you fixed? Then he might arrange for a confederate to be seen in town when the safe was opened. One could copy your clothes. The obstacle is, I haven't yet met anybody folks might think was you."
"All the same, I have done so," said Harden, and knitted his brows. "When I took my holiday in the West, I stopped for a week at Vancouver, and an American and I one evening thought we'd look about Chinatown and the red-light district. You see, we were tourists, and the hotel clerk declared we ought to go——"
"Exactly!" said Emerson, smiling. "You don't boast about the excursion, but we know your soberness and you can shove ahead."
"We stopped for about ten minutes at a shabby gambling-joint and paid a long price for two or three poisonous drinks. Then, in order to carry out the tourist's program, my partner chipped in at a card-game and staked a few small bills. By and by he touched me, and I saw the banker looked at me hard. I thought it strange, but the fellow was like me."
"The likeness was marked?"
For a moment or two Harden tried to reconstruct the picture. He saw the stained, dirty floor, the cracked boards, and the big kerosene lamps. One was just above his head and the light was good. The fellow who stacked the shining cards fronted him and his surprise was obvious.
"Well, no——" he replied in a thoughtful voice. "The likeness was a sort of family likeness; I feel it's the proper word. One knows one's relations, each has individuality and you note the difference; but another might take John for James, although he knew he was a Jardine. There's the queer thing, because I have no brother or cousin, and the fellow was a common tinhorn. For all that, he was puzzled, and the American was intrigued. Well, nothing was said, the gambler cut a fresh deck of cards, and when my friend lost his money we pulled out for a safer spot."
Emerson nodded. A red-light district is a modern Alsatia which the police, as a rule, leave alone. The lights are conspicuous and warn sober citizens to go the other way.
"A tinhorn is generally a crook. Do you think he inquired about you and afterwards used the likeness to help him rob the bank?"
Harden thought not. Vancouver was two thousand miles off, and he had not met the gambler since. Anyhow, there was no use in trying to find a fellow like that, and the theft was probably the work of an expert gang.
"Their solving the combination is the awkward thing," Garnet agreed. "In the meantime, what about the stolen securities?"
"Some might be sold in New York, if the gang got there soon, but I expect a number will go to Europe. The bank, of course, would telegraph its American agent. I cannot state if they got much news. To negotiate stolen bonds is, however, not as difficult as some people think, and expert crooks work on international lines. They have, no doubt, agents at London, Paris, and Brussels, and to copy stamps and forge transfers might not bother them. Besides, a number of the bonds are bearer bonds."
"I shall be in London," Emerson remarked.
Harden smiled. "You are a good sort, Garnet, but, talking like a banker I'd value your chance of helping at about ten cents——" He stopped and his smile vanished when he resumed: "It looks as if I must pay for my carelessness, and your part is to see my folks and as much as possible soften the jar. The old man and my sister have got a nasty knock——"
He brooded quietly, and after a minute or two Emerson got up.
"I can't help at Miscana, and if I pull out in the morning, I might get the Turanian. There's not much use in talking, Keith; but if by some lucky chance I do hit a clue, you can reckon on my not letting go. That is all, I guess."
Harden gave him his hand, and when Emerson went down the path his look was rather grim. He was not remarkably hopeful, but his habit was to trust his luck. Besides, he was not long since a police trooper, and when the Royal North-West undertook an awkward job they held on stubbornly.
