Budd Boyd's Triumph; or, The Boy-Firm of Fox Island

by William P. Chipman

Dear Sir--Possibly my reluctance to allow you a leave of absence may have led you to believe I do not sympathize with you in your wife's illness; but as a proof that I do, and also as a token of my appreciation of your long and faithful service, I inclose a check for five hundred ($500) dollars. Trusting you will return to us at the earliest possible moment, and that your wife's sojourn in a warmer climate may completely restore her to health,

I remain, yours truly,

N. B. JOHNSON.

"Now, father had seen more or less of Mr. Johnson's writing every day for years, and the quaint, cramped penmanship of the letter, with the familiar signature at the close, seemed identically those that were also upon the check. That was the regular firm-check also, and the number and perforation were in strict accordance with the firm-usages, and therefore father, with a grateful heart, wrote a note of thanks, and gave it to me to mail to Mr. Johnson as I went back to my boarding-place. With joyful hearts, too--joyful in spite of mother's feebleness--father and mother set out at an early hour the next morning for the South. They had taken this unexpected generosity of Mr. Johnson as a good omen, and neither had any suspicion that a cloud was gathering above their heads that would soon mean death to one and an incarceration in prison-walls for the other.

"In New York father was known, and he thought it wiser to cash his check there than wait until he got farther South; so the next morning he delayed one train, and at the opening of the bank where he was acquainted presented his check for payment. The money was handed him without any hesitation, and two hours later he, with his little party, had resumed the journey.

"At Richmond, Charleston and Jacksonville they made brief stops, that mother might rest, and it was not until the following week that they arrived at their destination. Imagine, now, father's surprise, when he registered at the hotel in Deland, to have an officer immediately step forward and arrest him for forgery and theft. As soon as father recovered his composure he demanded a full explanation of the outrage, and at whose instigation the charges had been made. He was completely overwhelmed when told that it was Mr. Johnson, and that he was charged not only with the forging of the check, but also with taking a thousand dollars in cash from the office safe.

"Father sent for a lawyer and consulted with him, hoping to arrange the affair in some way so that mother would have no knowledge of it, and having arranged for her comfort, he would then return to Boston and face the charges, sure that he could prove them false. But father was a stranger. No one was ready to offer bail for him, and the officer clamored for his immediate requisition. There seemed but one alternative. Mother must be told, and father return immediately to Boston.

"When mother was told, the shock seemed to give her new strength, and she declared she would not leave father while he was in trouble. The whole party started on their return, therefore, with the officer. In New York mother was taken with a hemorrhage, brought on, the doctors said, by excitement and overdoing, and in six hours she was a corpse.

"I saw the account of father's arrest in that morning's paper, and a few hours later got a telegram from father announcing mother's death, and that night met him at the depot and took charge of the corpse, while the officer took father to jail.

"The weeks that followed I cannot tell you of," continued Budd, after a paroxysm of sobs. "Mother was buried, and father's trial came. Some friends had rallied about him, good counsel was secured, and we hoped confidently for his acquittal. Father told his story just as it was, but Mr. Johnson declared he never either wrote the letter or sent the check; and Bagsley, who had been an under-clerk in the office, and had succeeded to father's position, produced bits of paper that he declared he had found hid in the office, on which there had evidently been constant practice to imitate the firm-name. This testimony, together with the known facts that father needed the money, and was the only clerk in the office that at that time had access to the safe and check-book, convicted him. His story, and the drawing of the check and the sending of it to the house, were declared to be simply plans on his part to cover his crimes in mother's and his friends' eyes, and account to them for the extra money he possessed, until he got safely out of the State. The thousand dollars that had disappeared from the safe he was supposed to have concealed. At the end, those who had claimed to be friends deserted him, and Mr. Johnson was openly complimented on the promptness with which he had acted. The Judge who presided at the trial seemed to have caught the popular belief, for he, when pronouncing the sentences, said: