CHAPTER XI.
IN A STRAIT BETWIXT TWO.
Amid the anxious bustle that filled the office Terry sat at his deskwith strange and perplexing thoughts coursing through his brain. Hehad seen the bag just for one moment as Mr. Drummond was hastilythrowing it into his desk. So far as he knew, only Mr. Hobart andhimself, of the office staff, had any knowledge of its existence. ThatMr. Hobart should have taken it was a notion so absurd that his mindrefused to entertain it for an instant. His kind friend was to him theincarnation of every human virtue, and Terry would have resented hotlythe insinuation that he could possibly be guilty of any suchwrong-doing.
Who, then, could be the thief? As he looked about the office, glancingfrom one to the other of the countenances of the clerks, all of whom,laying aside their work for the time, were exchanging conjectures as tohow the robbery had been managed, his eyes seemed drawn irresistiblytowards Morley.
The latter was not at his own desk, but stood near the window lookingout, as though not particularly interested in the earnest discussion,yet every now and then he gave a glance towards the group which showedthat he was listening intently to all they said.
It was his expression when he did this which impressed Terry. It had ablending of anxiety, bravado, and cunning triumph that could not failto provoke curiosity, if not to arouse suspicion, in so keen anobserver.
Once he caught Terry studying him, and instantly his face flushed withanger, and he gave back such a vicious scowl that Terry, apprehensiveof an outburst, took care not to meet his glance again.
Mr. Hobart had been in the inside office again for some time, when hecame out, seeming more troubled than ever, and beckoned Terry to him.
"Mr. Drummond wants to see you," he said, "although I told him youcouldn't know anything about it."
In no small perturbation Terry entered the sanctum. The two partnerswere sitting at their desks, both evidently greatly disturbed by whathad happened.
"Did you see anything of the bag that has been stolen, Terry?" askedMr. Drummond abruptly.
Terry hesitated for a moment. Did Mr. Drummond mean before it was putinto the desk or after?
"Why don't you answer me at once?" demanded his questioner testily,while Mr. Brown regarded Terry with a look of sharp inquiry.
"I--I--didn't see it since you put it in your desk, sir," stammeredTerry slowly, keeping his eyes fixed on the toes of his boots.
"Oh, ho!" cried Mr. Drummond in a tone that suggested he thought he wasgetting some light on the mystery. "Then you did see the bag before itwas put in my desk?"
"Yes, sir," answered Terry, the words coming more readily as heregained his self-command. "I saw the gentleman carrying it up thewharf."
"Was that all you saw of it?" asked Mr. Drummond, eying him narrowly."Tell me now exactly."
"No, sir," replied Terry, the colour mounting in his face as thethought came that perhaps he would be suspected of prying into a matterthat did not concern him. "I saw it when you were putting it into yourdesk."
The partners exchanged significant glances. Here now they seemed to befinding a clue that might help them. Recognizing the wisdom of beingmore diplomatic in his mode of cross-examination, Mr. Drummond pursuedhis inquiry in a much quieter tone.
"And how did you come to see the bag then?" he asked.
"The door of your office was open, sir," was the reply.
"And you were peeping, were you?" continued Mr. Drummond.
"Yes, sir. I didn't mean any harm," pleaded Terry.
"Perhaps not, but maybe harm has come of it whether you meant it ornot," retorted Mr. Drummond in a half-sneering tone. "Now tell me, wasthat the last you saw of the bag? Have you seen nothing of it since?Look me straight in the face as you answer me."
Terry lifted his eyes, and looked full into his employer's face as heresponded earnestly, "No, sir; sure as I'm standing here, sir, Ihaven't."
The fervent frankness of his manner carried conviction, and there was aperceptible change in Mr. Drummond's tone when he put the nextquestion:--
"From the way you say that, Terry, I believe it's the truth. But tellme this: did you mention to any person about having seen the bag?Think now, before you answer."
The boy's countenance, which had assumed its natural colour, grewflushed again, and he hesitated for a moment before he replied,--
"I did tell my mother about it when I went home, sir."
Once more the partners exchanged meaning glances, and Mr. Brown seemedabout to say something, when Mr. Drummond checked him by a warningmotion of his hand.
"That will do for the present, Terry," said he. "I may want to ask yousome more questions afterwards. Don't mention to any of the clerkswhat I've been asking you, or what you have told me. Just keep yourown counsel. Do you understand?"
When Terry went out, the two men consulted earnestly together. Fromthe signs left by the thief, whoever he was, it seemed clear that hehad a complete knowledge of the premises. He had apparently enteredthe warehouse by a back window, which in his haste he had forgotten toclose after him, broken open the desk with a large chisel, takennothing except the bag, and made off in the same way that he had come.
Terry's confession as to telling his mother of the bag was, to say theleast, suggestive. Black Mike had not much reputation to lose.According to the popular opinion of him, he would have small scruplesabout taking the bag. Of course he could not be arrested upon meresuspicion. Some more substantial grounds than that would have to befound. But, in the meantime, he was worth watching, and accordingly itwas decided to engage a detective to "shadow" him, in the hope ofobtaining further proof.
When Terry came out of Mr. Drummond's office, Mr. Hobart took himaside, and questioned him as to what he knew of the affair; and Terrytold him as much as he could without disobeying Mr. Drummond'sinjunctions.
His listener did not make any comments, although in his mind therearose the same thought that had occurred to the partners.
Terry's quick instinct told him there was something significant in hisstory which had made an impression on the members of the firm and uponMr. Hobart. Yet, strange to say, its actual import did not occur tohim at the time. Indeed he was too deeply troubled with the fear lesthe himself should be in some way regarded as an accomplice in therobbery, to speculate much as to who really might be the guilty one.
He saw nothing of his father all day. Black Mike had not shown up forwork, and the foreman took it for granted he was off on a spree. Butfor the fact that after a holiday of this kind he always seemeddetermined to atone for his absence by increased exertion, and wouldpositively do the work of two ordinary men, thanks to his enormousstrength, his name would not have stood upon the Long Wharf pay-roll atall. As it was, he received wages for the time he actually worked, andseemed quite content with the arrangement.
It was late at night before he reeled into Blind Alley, and stumbled upthe steep stairs to his squalid home. Tired though Terry felt, owingto the stress and strain of the day, he had, in spite of his mother'sprotests, stayed up to keep her company. Not a word did either speakwhen the drunkard lurched into the room and fell heavily across thebed. They knew better than to arouse his anger by addressing eitherhimself or one another.
He rolled about uneasily on the hard bed, grunting and growling morelike some wild animal than a human being. As he did so the clank ofcoins in his pocket could be heard, and presently in his contortionsseveral of them worked out, and fell with a loud clang upon the floor.He made as though he would get up to recover them; but the effort wastoo much for him, and sinking back with a smothered oath, he fell intothe heavy stupor of the drunkard's sleep.
It was not until he felt perfectly sure of his father's helplessnessthat Terry ventured to pick up the coins. To his astonishment theywere not copper pennies, as he had supposed from the sound of theirfall, but great golden double-eagles of the value of twenty dollarseach.
With a bewildered expression of countenance he laid them on hismoth
er's lap.
"Sure it's a heap of money," he whispered; "and how could father gethold of so much?"
Mrs. Ahearn felt the splendid coins one by one as though to convinceherself that they were no optical illusion.
"The blessed saints preserve us, Terry!" she replied, crossing herselfalmost mechanically. "Maybe it's goblin gold, and we should not betouchin' it at all."
Not only was Terry far less superstitious than his mother, but he hadenjoyed the advantage of a wider experience. He had often seen Mr.Hobart counting over precisely similar coins, and he felt pretty surethat there was no goblin element about the contents of his father'spockets.
"Och! no, mother," he answered, "it's not goblin gold at all. We oftenhave the same at the office."
There was a certain perceptible note of pride in his voice as hebrought out the last sentence, reassured by which Mrs. Ahearn took thecoins into her hands again, and permitted her sense of beauty toindulge itself in admiring their perfection.
Neither spoke for the next minute; their brains were busy withperplexing thoughts. Meantime Black Mike lay motionless as a log, onlyan occasional gurgling gasp showing that he was actually alive. He wasnow lying upon the broad of his back, thus leaving all his pocketsexposed. Acting upon an impulse that he could not restrain, Terry wentover to him and made a thorough search of the pockets. The result wasthe discovery of three more double-eagles, making five in all.
One hundred dollars! more money by far than Black Mike had ever had atonce in his life before. How could he have honestly come by it?Unknown to each other the same thought was forming in the mind of themother and son, and they dared not look into one another's eyes lest itshould be revealed. Mr. Hobart had told Terry that the black bagcontained a very large amount of money in gold, and this the boy hadduly repeated at home.
At last the silence became unendurable to both. Unable to restrainherself any longer, Mrs. Ahearn caught Terry by the arm, and drew himtowards her.
"Holy Mary!" she murmured, as though praying for strength; and then,after a moment's pause, added in a hoarse whisper, "Could your fatherhave stolen it, Terry?"
Terry started as if he had been struck, for his mother had uttered thevery question that possessed his own mind. He did not hold towards hisfather a very warm affection. Black Mike's treatment of him from hisbabyhood had been too consistently unfatherly for that. But thethought of being arrested and sent to the grim granite penitentiary outby the North-West Arm filled him with horror.
"Surely not, mother," he responded with a warmth that was increased byhis desire to convince himself as well as his mother. "It's not thelikes of father to be stealing money; somebody must have given it tohim."
The suggestion was a very unlikely one, yet they both sought to takecomfort from it. Gold was very plentiful in Halifax in those days, andthe successful blockade-runners lavished it with a free hand. Some oneof them, whose wits had been stolen away by strong drink, might havefilled Black Mike's pockets in a fit of reckless generosity.
But the more Terry thought over this the more improbable did it seem,and he felt himself, however reluctantly, thrown back upon the onlyother alternative to which almost unconsciously he gave expression.
"If father did steal the money," he said, keeping his eyes fixed on thedrunken form, "where do you think he could have got it?"
He put the question because, although he had already answered it in hisown mind, he shrank from expressing his thought, at least until he sawwhether the same had come into his mother's mind.
Mrs. Ahearn was silent for some moments. Then, bending over towardshim as if afraid the sleeper might catch her words, she replied,--
"The black bag, Terry!"
Terry gave a groan of misery. His own harrowing suspicion had foundexpression in his mother's words, and instantly he saw himselftransfixed between the horns of a terrible dilemma.
Not only so, but just as his mother had hit upon, the same solution ofthe mystery of the gold, so must she realize the position in which hewas placed by it. That she did this was made clear the next moment;for, as he remained silent, she drew him into her arms, and folding himto her breast, sobbed out in plaintive tones,--
"Ye won't tell Mr. Drummond, will ye, Terry darlint? Sure it wouldbreak me poor heart entirely if they were to send the police after yourfather, and have him put in the penitentiary."
It was long past midnight before sleep came to Terry's eyes. He tossedand tumbled about on his hard bed in a state of the most painfulperplexity. The idea of informing upon his father seemed nothing shortof horrible to him, and yet did not duty to his employer and to thetruth demand it? Mr. Drummond had been so good to him. Here, now, wasan opportunity to prove his gratitude. By prompt action a good part ofthe stolen money might perhaps be recovered before it was squandered,therefore the sooner he informed the better. His mother had carefullyput away the gold coins, in order that they might be restored when theyknew for certain to whom they rightfully belonged. Should he take themto the office in the morning, and tell the whole story?
When he got up the next morning, a little later than usual, havingoverslept himself, he found his father already gone out. Black Mikehad apparently not missed the gold, and asked no questions, althoughhis drunkenness had disappeared.
Nothing was said between Terry and his mother while he ate hisbreakfast quickly; but just as he was hurrying off, she threw her armsaround his neck and whispered in his ear,--
"Say nothin' about the gold to-day, Terry darlint. Maybe it wasn'tyour father took the bag at all."
At the office the clerks had settled down again to their regularroutine, and the distractions of the preceding day having caused somearrears, they had to work all the harder to make them up. Terry waskept on his feet continually, and was left little time for quietthinking. Mr. Hobart was absent, having been sent off by the firm onan important mission to Windsor, whence he would not return until thefollowing day. Terry's heart sank when he heard this, for he craved atalk with his friend, although his mind was not yet made up as towhether he would tell him about his father.
Another absentee was Morley. A note had come from him, stating that hewas ill and confined to bed, but hoped to be at his desk in a day ortwo. For some inexplicable reason, when Terry learned this the thoughtflashed into his mind that Morley might know something about the blackbag. He could give himself no reason for it, yet there it stuck, andby its presence helped to strengthen his reluctance to make known thefacts about his father.
In the afternoon the office was once more thrown into a state ofexcitement by the news that the detectives had discovered the thief,and already had him under arrest. Terry was out on an errand when theword came.
On his return he entered the office just behind Mr. Boggs, theassistant book-keeper, at sight of whom one of the other clerks, eagerto be the first to tell the news, shouted out,--
"They've caught the burglar, Boggs. Guess who it is?"
Terry's heart stopped beating, and an icy chill ran through his body,as, pausing by the door, he waited in harrowing apprehension for theanswer.
Terry's Trials and Triumphs Page 11
