"Yes, sir. I have been for forty-two years."
"And very influential in its management?"
"They frequently call on me for advice, and, as the institution is a philanthropy, I feel it my duty always to respond."
Fosdick noted that a smile, discreet but unmistakably derisive, ran round the room. Morris's face was sober, but the smile was in his eyes. Fosdick sat still straighter and frowned slightly. He highly disapproved of cynicism directed at himself.
"In looking at some of the books with Mr. Westervelt a while ago," continued Morris, "we came upon a matter—several items—which we thought ought to be explained at once. We wish no public misapprehensions to arise through any inadvertence of ours. So we have turned aside from the regular course of the investigation, to complete the matter."
Fosdick's face betrayed his satisfaction—all had gone well; Armstrong was in the trap; it only remained for him to close it. Morris now took up a thin, well-worn account book which Fosdick recognized as the chief of Westervelt's four treasures. "I find here," he continued, "fourteen entries of twenty-five thousand dollars each—three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in all—drawn by the President of the O.A.D., Mr. Armstrong here. Will you kindly tell us all you know about those items?"
Mr. Fosdick smiled slightly. "Really, Mr. Morris," replied he, with the fluency of the well-rehearsed actor, "I cannot answer that question, as you put it. Even if I knew all about the items, I might not recognize them from your too scanty description."
"We have just had Mr. Armstrong on the stand," said the lawyer. "He testified that he drew the money under your direction and paid it—the most of it—in your presence to Benjamin Sigourney, who looked after political matters for your company."
Fosdick's expression of sheer amazement was sincerity itself. He looked from Morris to Armstrong. With his eyes and Armstrong's meeting, he said energetically, "I know of no such transaction."
"You do not recall any of the fourteen transactions?"