FORTUNE'S FAVORS
The cashier looked relieved after the departure of Mr. Graylock.
As for the teller, he took occasion to shake his fist after the retreating storekeeper, and shake his head as though he bore the man anything but brotherly love.
Dick stood there waiting for the cashier to speak.
"You can go about your regular duties, Dick, and say nothing about what has happened, to any one outside of the bank."
"Then I am not discharged, sir?" asked the boy, a sign of moisture coming into his eyes as he looked into the face of the cashier.
"Certainly not. There has been nothing proven as yet. Others as well as you have had access to the safe, and could, if they wished, have opened the envelope and abstracted those papers. I must have time to think this over. First I shall call up the Boston firm and settle that point. Then, when Mr. Gibbs gets here he and I will try to find out just what could have come of those securities. While you were out, Mr. Winslow, I searched the safe thoroughly, in the hope that in some unaccountable way they might have slipped out of the envelope, but they are certainly not there. I am in a fog just now; but depend upon it, we will find out the thief."
"I hope so, sir. Come, Dick, I have an errand for you," and the kindly teller threw his arm about the shoulder of the boy, and in this way walked into the outer office.
Every eye was immediately fastened on them, and the attitude of Mr. Winslow was enough in itself to assure Mr. Payson, the bookkeeper, and Pliny that at least he was convinced of the boy's innocence.
The balance of the day dragged heavily to every one.
Business was almost at a standstill in the bank, for when the cashier was not in evidence some of them were bound to drift together and converse in whispers about the strange and terrible thing that had happened.
Each one seemed to feel the weight resting upon his shoulders, for until the truth came out there must always be an uncertainty as to the entire innocence of the employees of the bank.
Mr. Winslow had to tell his part in the investigation several times, and the letter was passed around until every one had read it; but Mr. Winslow insisted that it should not leave his sight until the banker himself had had a chance to see it.
Finally, when released for the day from his duties Dick went straight home.
He held his head erect and walked as firmly as though honors had been showered upon him, instead of his being under suspicion of having stolen valuable securities held in trust by the bank.
Mr. Graylock had claimed that he intended to borrow enough on these papers to tide him through his present difficulties; personally, however, the cashier knew that he was in so deep that even this large amount would only have stayed the inevitable for a short time.
Dick, of course, did not know this fact, and having heard the owner of the big store declare that he would be ruined by his loss, he could not help but feel a certain amount of pity for him.
His mind was in a whirl as he walked home, and in the maze he seemed to be trying to grasp something that continually eluded him, something that if he could only capture it might give him a clue as to the solution of the mystery.
Like Mr. Goodwyn, the sudden shock had disconcerted him, and he seemed to be in somewhat of a fog as to the happenings of that day; resolutely he set himself to the task of straightening things out, and going over every little incident that had occurred while he was eating his lunch and the two men were talking in the adjoining room.
He had not dared mention this fact as yet to Mr. Goodwyn, for, on its face, he feared that it would only serve to make his case more serious; since the fact would become evident that he knew the value of the papers in the packet.
He had just reached the point where he took that one peep through the little knothole, and saw Mr. Graylock buttoning up his coat, with that inscrutable look on his thin face, when he arrived home, and found his mother awaiting him.
To his surprise she was smiling as though unusually happy, and this was so unexpected that it gave him a pang to remember how he must bring new shadows upon her heart by telling how he was suspected of having done a terrible thing.
"Good news, Dick, guess what it is?" she exclaimed, as she fondly caught him in her arms and kissed him.
"Not the resumption of paying dividends by that company?" he asked.
"No, something as unexpected as a meteor falling out of the heavens. I have received word from a lawyer in Boston that a relative whom I hardly knew belonged to the family has died, and left me quite a little fortune—the lawyer could not say the exact amount, but it brings in something like a thousand dollars a year."
Dick could hardly believe his ears.
What a day this had been, the evil mingled with the good; would he ever forget it as long as he lived?
Of course, being a boy he immediately forgot all about his own troubles, and hugged his little mother until she begged for mercy.
"Say, isn't that great? Did you ever hear of such luck, and just when it looked as if we were near the bottom of the heap, too? Ain't it just bully? I feel as if I could whoop like a wild Indian. Now, mother, no more worry for you, and a rest from all that miserable sewing that makes your eyes red. Hurrah for the Morrisons! they're sure IT right now."
His boyish enthusiasm was bubbling over in this fashion when he suddenly remembered the distressing news he had brought with him; still, in the light of his mother's glorious good fortune Dick somehow felt that he could stand the odium of being under suspicion for a little while; for, of course, the truth must come out sooner or later.
His friends at the bank believed in him, and if the cashier still harbored any doubts he at least was a square man and meant to do the right thing; as for what Mr. Graylock chose to think, that could not matter a great deal, for he had plainly shown that he was very much prejudiced against Dick—in fact, come to think of it, he had by every means in his power striven to make it appear that the crime must lie at his door.
It was what puzzled Dick, and seemed to be the subject of much of his pondering.
He waited until they were through supper before speaking of the ugly matter.
Trust a fond mother's eyes for discovering that her boy had something on his mind that even the glorious news received that day was unable to dissipate.
"Now tell me what ails you, son," she said, as he snuggled down beside her on the settee on the porch; for the evening was balmy and the stars so bright they could not bear to sit inside by a lamp.
She did not once interrupt while he told the story, beginning with the day he happened to be alone in the storeroom back of the offices eating his lunch when Mr. Graylock brought over the securities he wished to leave in the bank looking to the day he would have to borrow on them.
When he had finished Mrs. Morrison sighed deeply.
"I cannot see how any one could imagine that you had anything to do with the disappearance of the papers," she said. "I should say that some one who was perfectly familiar with their marketable value must have taken them. But it is evident that Mr. Graylock has made up his mind you are guilty, though it is incomprehensible to me why he should do so, rather than one of the tellers, or the bookkeeper; and he means to give you all the trouble he can. Oh! how I fear that man. There is something about his face that makes me shiver whenever I look at him—something so crafty, so cruel. I do not believe he has the feelings of other men, or cares for a living soul beyond himself."
"Now, don't feel so badly over this affair, mother dear. It will all come out right, just as Mr. Winslow says. Mr. Graylock may find that after all he did not put the negotiable papers in the envelope—but no, that couldn't be, for the cashier owns to having handled them at the time. Perhaps Mr. Graylock—" and there he abruptly came to a stop as a dazzling thought flashed through his mind almost staggering him with its immensity, so that he fairly gasped for breath.
"What was it you were about to say, Dick?" asked the lady.
"Never mind, mother, I had better not finish my sentence. A sudden thought came to me, perhaps a foolish one, but anyhow I shall mention it to Mr. Winslow in the morning. Let us forget this trouble to-night, and only talk about the wonderful fortune that has come to you. I want to take that letter from the lawyer with me to-morrow to show Mr. Goodwyn. You see if he heard we had come suddenly into some money he might think it looked very suspicious."
She laughed at that.
"I can see how your bank training is already making you very shrewd, my boy. I should never have thought of that, and how suggestive it might seem, coming as it has just now. You shall have the letter, and now let us plan what improvements we can make in our little home when some of this bonanza comes in," she said.