Hard Cash

Dodd began to be uneasy. "Why, good heavens, there is nothing wrong with the old Barkington Bank?"

"Nothing wrong?" roared Maxley: then whispered': "Holt! I was laad once for slander, and cost me thirty pounds: nearly killed my missus it did."

"Man!" cried Dodd, "for my children's sake tell me if you know anything amiss. After all, I'm like a stranger here; more than two years away at a time."

"I'll tell you all I know," whispered Maxley, "'tis the least I can do.

What (roaring) do--you--think--I've forgotten you saving my poor boy out o' that sc.r.a.pe, and getting him a good place in Canada, and--why, he'd have been put in prison but for you, and that would ha' broken my heart and his mother's--and----" The stout voice began to quaver.

"Oh, bother all that now," said Dodd impatiently. "The bank! you have grounded me on thorns."

"Well, I'll tell ye: but you must promise faithful not to go and say I told ye, or you'll get me laad again: and I likes to laa _them,_ not for _they_ to laa me."

"I promise, I promise."

"Well then, I got a letter to-day from my boy, him as you was so good to, and here 'tis in my breeches-pocket.--Laws! how things do come round sure_ly:_ why, lookee here now; if so be _you_ hadn't been a good friend to _he, he_ wouldn't be where he is; and if so be _he_ warn't where _he_ is, _he_ couldn't have writ _me_ this here, and then where should _you_ and _I_ be?"

"Belay your jaw and show me this letter," cried David, trembling all over.

"That I wool," said Maxley, diving a hand into his pocket. "Hus.h.!.+ lookee yander now; if there ain't Master Alfred a-watching of us two out of his window: and he have got an eye like a hawk, _he_ have. Step in the pa.s.sage, Captain, and I'll show it to you."

He drew him aside into the pa.s.sage, and gave him the letter. Dodd ran his eye over it hastily, uttered a cry like a wounded lion, dropped it, gave a slight stagger, and rushed away.

Maxley picked up his letter and watched Dodd into the bank again and reflected on his work. His heart was warmed at having made a return to the good captain.

His head suggested that he was on the road which leads to libel.

But he had picked up at the a.s.sizes a smattering of the law of evidence; so he coolly tore the letter in pieces. "There now," said he to himself, "if Hardies do laa me for publis.h.i.+ng of this here letter, why they pours their water into a sieve. Ugh!" And with this exclamation he started, and then put his heavy boot on part of the letter, and ground it furtively into the mud; for a light hand had settled on his shoulder, and a keen young face was close to his.

It was Alfred Hardie, who had stolen on him like a cat. "I'm laad,"

thought Maxley.

"Maxley, old fellow," said Alfred, in a voice as

"Well, Master, Halfred, sight of you mostly puts me in one, especially after that there strychnine job."

"Then tell me," whispered Alfred, his eyes sparkling and his face beaming, "who was that you were talking to just now? Was it?--wasn't it?--who was it?"

CHAPTER XVIII

WHILE Dodd stood lowering in the doorway, he was nevertheless making a great effort to control his agitation.

At last he said in a stern but low voice, in which, however, a quick ear might detect a tremor of agitation: "I have changed my mind, sir: I want my money back."

At this, though David's face had prepared him, Mr. Hardie's heart sank: but there was no help for it. He said faintly, "Certainly. May I ask----?" and there he stopped; for it was hardly prudent to ask anything.

"No matter," replied Dodd, his agitation rising even at this slight delay. "Come! my money! I must and will have it."

Hardie drew himself up majestically. "Captain Dodd, this is a strange way of demanding what n.o.body here disputes."

"Well, I beg your pardon," said Dodd, a little awed by his dignity and fairness, "but I can't help it."

The quick, supple banker saw the slight advantage he had gained, and his mind went into a whirl. What should he do? It was death to part with this money and gain nothing by it. Sooner tell Dodd of the love affair, and open a treaty on this basis: he clung to this money like limpet to its rock; and so intense and rapid were his thoughts and schemes how to retain it a little longer, that David's apologies buzzed in his ear like the drone of a beetle.

The latter went on to say, "You see, sir, it's my children's fortune, my boy Edward's, and my little Julia's: and so many have been trying to get it from me, that my blood boils up in a moment about it now.--My poor head!--You don't seem to understand what I am saying! There then, I am a sailor; I can't go beating and tacking like you landsmen, with the wind dead astern. The long and the short is, I don't feel It safe here: don't feel It safe anywhere, except in my wife's lap. So no more words: here's your receipt; give me my money."

"Certainly, Captain Dodd. Call to-morrow morning at the bank, and it will be paid on demand in the regular way: the bank opens at ten o'clock."

"No, no; I can't wait. I should be dead of anxiety before then. Why not pay it me here and now? You took it here."

"We receive deposits till four o'clock, but we do not disburse after three. This is the system of all banks."

"That is all nonsense: if you are open to receive money, you are open to pay it."

"My dear sir, if you were not entirely ignorant of business, you would be aware that these things are not done in this way. Money received is pa.s.sed to account, and the cas.h.i.+er is the only person who can honour your draft on it. But, stop; if the cas.h.i.+er is in the bank, we may manage it for you yet. Skinner, run and see whether he has left: and if not, send him to me directly." The cas.h.i.+er took his cue and ran out.

David was silent.

The cas.h.i.+er speedily returned, saying, with a disappointed air, "The cas.h.i.+er has been gone this quarter of an hour."

David maintained an ominous silence.

"That is unfortunate," remarked Hardie. "But, after all, it is only till to-morrow morning. Still I regret this circ.u.mstance, sir; and I feel that all these precautions we are obliged to take must seem unreasonable to you. But experience dictates this severe routine, and, were we to deviate from it, our friends' money would not be so safe in our hands as it always has been at present."

David eyed him sternly, but let him run on. When he had concluded his flowing periods, David said quietly, "So you can't give me my own because your cas.h.i.+er has carried it away?"

Hardie smiled. "No, no; but because he has locked it up and carried away the key."

"It is not in this room, then?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"What, not in that safe of yours, there?"

"Certainly not," said Hardie stoutly.

"Open the safe: the keys are in it."

"Open the safe? What for?"

"To show me It is not in the right-hand part.i.tion of that safe; there: there." And David pointed at the very place where it was.

The dignified Mr. Hardie felt ready to sink with shame: a kind of shudder pa.s.sed through him, and he was about to comply, heart-sick; but then wounded pride and the rage of disappointment stung him, and he turned in defiance. "You are impertinent, sir, and I shall not reward your curiosity and your insolence by showing you the contents of my safe."