|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 8
That night the newspapers were full of the story. There was the
whole thing, exaggerated, distorted, multiplied, until they had
become swindlers of millions instead of thousands. But nevertheless
it was their story. There was only one grain of consolation. It was
in the last paragraph of the news item, and read: "There seems to be
no trace of the man and woman who worked this clever swindle. As if
by a telepathic message they have vanished at just the time when
their whole house of cards collapsed."
They removed every vestige of their work from the apartment.
Everything was destroyed. Constance even began a new water color so
that that might suggest that she had not laid aside her painting.
They had played for a big stake and lost. But the twenty thousand
dollars was something. Now the great problem was to conceal it and
themselves. They had lost, yet if ever before they loved, it was as
nothing to what it was now that they had tasted together the bitter
and the sweet of their mutual crime.
Carlton went down to the office the next day, just as before. The
anxious hours that his wife had previously spent thinking whether he
might betray himself by some slip were comparative safety as
contrasted with the uncertainty of the hours now. But the first day
after the alarm of the discovery passed off all right. Carlton even
discussed the case, his case, with those in the office, commented on
it, condemned the swindlers, and carried it off, he felt proud to
say, as well as Constance herself might have done had she been in
his place.
Another day passed. His account of the first day, reassuring as it
had been to her, did not lessen the anxiety. Yet never before had
they seemed to be bound together by such ties as knitted their very
souls in this crisis. She tried with a devotion that was touching to
impart to him some of her own strength to ward off detection.
It was the afternoon of the second day that a man who gave the name
of Drummond called and presented a card of the Reynolds Company.
"Have you ever been paid a little bill of twenty-five dollars by our
company?" he asked.
Down in his heart Carlton knew that this man was a detective. "I
can't say without looking it up," he replied.
Carlton touched a button and an assistant appeared. Something
outside himself seemed to nerve him up, as he asked: "Look up our
account with Reynolds, and see if we have been paid--what is it?--a
bill for twenty-five dollars. Do you recall it?"
"Yes, I recall it," replied the assistant. "No, Mr. Dunlap, I don't
think it has been paid. It is a small matter, but we sent them a
duplicate bill yesterday. I thought the original must have gone
astray."
Carlton cursed him inwardly for sending the bill. But then, he
reasoned, it was only a question of time, after all, when the
forgery would be discovered.
Drummond dropped into a half-confidential, half-quizzing tone. "I
thought not. Somewhere along the line that check has been stolen and
raised to twenty-five thousand dollars," he remarked.
"Is that so?" gasped Carlton, trying hard to show just the right
amount of surprise and not too much. "Is that so?"
"No doubt you have read in the papers of this clever realty company
swindle? Well, it seems to have been part of that."
"I am sure that we shall be glad to do all in our power to cooperate
with Reynolds," put in Dunlap.
"I thought you would," commented Drummond dryly. "I may as well tell
you that I fear some one has been tampering with your mail."
"Tampering with OUR mail?" repeated Dunlap, aghast. "Impossible."
"Nothing is impossible until it is proved so," answered Drummond,
looking him straight in the eyes. Carlton did not flinch. He felt a
new power within himself, gained during the past few days of new
association with Constance. For her he could face anything.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|