NOT FOR SALE
On the way home that day Dick even mustered up enough courage to whistle again, something he had not thought of doing ever since this black shadow had fallen across his path.
The mere fact that a man as astute as Mr. Winslow should agree that his suspicion was founded on something worth looking into gave him considerable comfort.
It was a terrible thought, but just as the teller had declared, he could see that things must have come to a bad pass indeed with the merchant, and that anticipating a smash in the near future he had possibly conceived the scheme of making way with those negotiable securities in order to defraud his creditors; when the storm had blown over he might go to some city, dispose of the valuable papers by degrees, and in this way have enough to live on comfortably the balance of his days.
On the way home Dick considered whether it were best to tell his mother; and as he had always made it a habit to keep nothing of any importance from her he determined to do so.
She had ever been his best friend and adviser in the many difficulties that beset a boy, and more than once he had found that her wisdom far excelled his own in bringing about a settlement of his boyish disputes.
He found her anxiously awaiting his coming, for the strain had been great, and every minute beyond his customary time for returning was torture to her fond heart, since, in imagination, she could see him being possibly arrested for something that any one with half a heart must know he would never be guilty of doing.
And so Dick told her what had passed during the day, winding up with his conference with Mr. Winslow.
To this latter Mrs. Morrison listened with bated breath, and a look of alarm not unmixed with horror in her gentle eyes.
She was unused to anything bordering on crime, and could hardly believe that a man might bring himself to such a point where he would rob himself.
"But that isn't the point, mother," said Dick, when the lady spoke of this fact. "If he did take those securities he wasn't stealing from himself but from his creditors; for you see they were part of his resources, and would have to be produced in case of a failure, to help pay off his indebtedness."
"Yes, I think I manage to grasp that part of it now, Dick, though you financial men should be more careful to explain such things to greenhorns. Do you suppose he will be arrested and made to produce the missing documents, son?" she asked, with a little laugh.
"Oh! I do not think so. Mr. Winslow said we hadn't a bit of evidence against him more than suspicion, and that is a poor thing to go on. You thought so in my case mother, anyway. He told me to leave it to him, and in some way he'd find a chance to learn the truth."
"What would Mr. Graylock do with the papers in case he did take them out of the envelope that day?" she asked.
"Why, I suppose he would be apt to carry them home and hide them. Perhaps if some one could only watch him without his knowing it, the truth might come out. If he does go under to-morrow, as Mr. Winslow thinks possible, he will be apt to stay around here for some time settling up his affairs; and all the while the missing securities would be safe in the place he has hidden them. But how can anybody get into his house to find them? Ferd wouldn't think of asking me there; and if his father found me under his roof there would be a row at once."
"Better leave all that to Mr. Winslow, my boy. From what you tell me I fancy he is a keen young man, and surely he will think of some way whereby the truth may be made known. At least I hope and pray that it may be so. If that wicked man has been guilty of this terrible thing he deserves to suffer."
So presently they fell to talking of happier things, and the plans spoken of on the preceding night in connection with certain needful repairs about the cottage were again taken up and discussed.
In anticipation of the coming good fortune Mrs. Morrison was already beginning to feel that happiness lay before them; and had it not been for this one cloud on the horizon of Dick's young business career she would have believed herself without a wish ungratified.
As chance would have it while they were still talking some one drove up to the gate in a little buggy and climbed down from the seat.
"I think it must be Lawyer Cheatham," said Dick, looking beyond the porch; "I wonder what he wants here at this time of night."
His mother laughed softly.
"I think I can give a guess, Dick. A week ago when things looked so dark for us I went to see him about selling our little home. I really believed that it might be necessary for us to leave Riverview and go to the city, where I could find customers who would pay me better for my dressmaking than here, and if necessary you could get a place, for there seemed no chance here. I went to see him and we discussed terms. He was very hard, and offered me much less than I thought the place ought to bring. So I came away determined to try and hold out a little longer. I fancy he is coming now to make me a better offer."
"Oh! he is, eh? Well, this place isn't on the market now, is it mother. You don't want to sell it, the house father built?" said Dick, earnestly.
"No, no, not that, only as a very last resort, and thank Heaven we do not have to think of it now," she answered, as the dark figure shuffled up the walk.
"Good evening, Mr. Cheatham. Walk right inside, please. We were just sitting out here talking, Richard and I. Have a chair, won't you?" she said, hospitably.
The lawyer was also a money-lender, and accounted a very shrewd customer.
He was a dried-up specimen of humanity, and mumbled in talking as though never certain how long he could hold his false upper set of teeth in place; Dick had known him for years, but never fancied the old bachelor, who was said to be even richer than Mr. Gibbs, though he wore shabby clothes and drove a rig that would have shamed most men.
"Ahem! I have just dropped in to see you about the sale, Mrs. Morrison. I offered you twelve hundred for the place, counting the mortgages, and you held out for fourteen hundred. Now, circumstances have arisen whereby I am enabled to raise my bid to thirteen hundred. There is about eight hundred due on the place, which will leave you an equity of five hundred. Shall we call it a go, madam?"
"No, sir, I have changed my mind since I saw you," replied the widow, smiling at his eagerness; for knowing his crafty ways she felt positive he had found a chance to dispose of the pretty cottage at a very much greater sum, if he could only get possession of it.
"Well, though the property is hardly worth it I must accept your terms then, and give you the full fourteen hundred, though it will leave me a scant chance to come out even after I have made certain repairs, and put it on the market again," he said.
She shook her head in the negative.
"You did not understand me, Mr. Cheatham when I said I had changed my mind."
"Why, certainly, madam, every woman is given that privilege. I suppose you have concluded to put the price up to fifteen hundred. It is a ridiculous sum; but rather than disappoint a client who has set his heart on securing this same house, I suppose I must submit to the inevitable and consent to pay that exorbitant price," he went on.
Dick could stand it no longer.
He felt that since he was a man of business now, and the head of the house, he ought to have something to say about such a transaction as this.
"Mr. Cheatham, let me explain to you just what my mother means. This house is not for sale," he said, in positive tones that made the old money-lender stare at him.
"Not for sale, young man, when your mother came to me and begged me to take it off her hands? It was only a question of price, and I have even gone a hundred above her own figure. Surely she would not be so foolish as to lose such a golden opportunity, which may never occur again. Not for sale—you must be mistaken, boy."
"As she said to you, circumstances have also changed with us since she called on you. My mother has come into some money, enough to keep her in comfort all her life, and she does not mean to let this house, which my father himself built, go out of her possession. You could not buy it sir, at double the price you offer."
The lawyer and money shark jumped up from his chair as though he had been fixed upon a spring like a jack-in-the-box.
"Madam, is what your son tells me true?" he demanded, hotly.
"Every word of it, Mr. Cheatham; I have been trying to say the same thing but somehow could not get you to understand me. We do not intend to leave Riverview, and the property is withdrawn from sale," she replied.
"Then I have been a fool to come out here to-night," he growled, and shuffled out toward the gate.
"A good riddance, and I hope he never comes here again. When he really got it through his head that you had fallen into a fortune the old beast looked at you as if he could eat you, mother. If he ever comes courting around here I'll be tempted to do something desperate, the old skinflint. He's the worst-hated man in all Riverview, even if he is the richest," declared Dick, as he heard the vehicle moving down the road with sundry creakings and groanings, for they said Hezekiah Cheatham was too stingy to buy axle grease.
"Richard, don't speak of such a thing again, even in fun. Like our little cottage home I am not in the market. Now let us talk again of things more pleasant than Mr. Cheatham, or the missing securities. When we put that new wing on, you shall have a den of your own; and I expect to enjoy the comfort of an up-to-date bathroom, something I have always wanted. But not a penny shall we spend until that delightful little inheritance is safely in our hands. What a Paradise we can make of our dear home in time, eh, Dick?"
And so they talked on as the time flew, picturing happy scenes, and more of comfort than they had ever known; really it seemed to Dick that the shadow he had felt hovering over his devoted head did not appear so formidable after all, with a mother's love to take away its bitter sting.