The Lights o' Gotham; or, The Gilded Villain — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE LOG CABIN LIBRARY. vantage of it. The fever of speculation was on me. deeper and deeper in the mire until—until——”’ He chokingly paused, unable to continue. ‘*Until you saw no way out of it but to rob my safe,” quietly finished Mr. Thorndyke. ‘*~ 3!” groaned young Minturn, ‘‘ Wall street has been my ruin.” “y There was a peculiar chuckle in his employer’s voice as he muttered half aloud: ‘‘ Well, well, you can console yourself with the thought that you are not the only one whom Wall street has ruined. But why,” he added, ‘‘ did you not come to me and tell me all about it?” ‘‘Ah, sir, how could I after my protestations of horror against stock-gambling? Alas, we know not how weak we are until temptation assails us.”’ ‘* Still you need not have had any secrets from me,” slowly and deliberately said his employer. ‘*‘ You might even have come to me to-day during the office hours, and have told me it was your intention to rob my safe this evening.” ‘*Eh!” ejaculated the young man, stupefied, distrusting the evidences of his own senses. Mr. Thorndyke cast a keen glance at him, and added: ‘*T would have patted you on the shoulder and said: ‘ Goon, my boy, and do it’,”’ I sank CHAPTER IL THE MURDER. It would be hard to tell which was the most surprised at these remarkable words, the young clerk who had fallen victim to the temptations of Wall street, or the tramp listening in the outer office. It needed all of Baxter’s fortitude not to betray himself by a movement, while young Minturn sprang from his kneeling pos- ture to his feet, and gazed at the banker with a look of horrified amazement. ‘* You—you would have told me to rob your safe?” he stam- mered, at length. ‘‘ Exactly,” replied Mr. Thorndyke, coolly drawing a cigar from his pocket and lighting it. ‘‘ Don’t look so flabergasted. ‘* Here, take a smoke.” He offered him a cigar, but the young man feebly shook his head in refusal. ‘‘Don’t want to smoke, eh?” nonchalantly continued the banker. ‘‘It would steady your nerves though. No matter; take a seat.” Young Minturn sank into a chair, still with a dazed, stupefied expression in his face. Mr. Thorndyke puffed away in silence for a few moments as if he was considering his thoughts, then, in a cool, off-hand manner, spoke as follows: ‘‘There are more things in an employer's affairs than are dreamed of in the philosophy of the most quick-witted of his clerks. No doubt you deem mea very wealthy man. You have seen my house on the avenue, my horses, and carriages; you know there are one hundred thousand dollars in gold and bills in that safe; you think all that belongs to me. Ah, well, it doesn't. I owe about ten times as much, and deposits, you know, are trust funds,”’ He paused here for a moment to knock the ashes from the end of his cigar, and then continued: , ‘‘Your eyes ask where has it all gone? Into the maelstrom of Wall street. Where you have risked a five-dollar bill on a ‘put’ ora ‘call,’ 1 have ventured thousands and ten of thou- sands. You have been ruined, so have I. Were a run to occur on me to-morrow, and there haye been rumors enough afloat during the last week to occasion one, that hundred thousand dollars would melt like snow undera July sun. I would have to close my doors at noon, penniless, bankrupt, dishonored.” ‘=e ‘*Can it be possible?” murmured the clerk, horror-stricken by this revelation. ‘‘T am avery cool man,’’ continued the banker; ‘‘ that you cannot have helped noticing. Ido nothing in a hurry or with- out deliberation. When I knew that my ruin was inevitable, I looked about me how to secure as much as possible from the wreck. For some days I’ve been accumulating that money in the safe for the purpose of absconding with it. I fixed my ar- rangements for to-night. At midnight a ship leaves from Pier 8, North River, for Marseilles, France. It is a mere freight steamer, and does not ordinarily carry passengers. However, I secured a berth on it under the alias of John Smith. I came here to night to rob the safe and leave the country with the money. but finding you here on the same errand has caused a change in my plans.”’ A vague suspicion of what Mr. Thorndyke was driving at crossed the clerk’s mind, and he became a shade paler. ‘* A change in your plans?” he faintly asked. ‘Yes, a very simple one. You are to do the absconding.” ‘*T!” cried young Minturn, springing to his feet in affright. ‘* Yes, you,’ coolly replied the banker. ‘‘ You will take, say ten thousand dollars ,with you, and ship on board the Palissier under my alias. ‘To-morrow I will discover that my clerk has robbed me of all, and I can, then, gracefully retire from business with ninety thousand dollars in my pocket.” ‘* That’s a sweet scheme,” muttered John Baxter; ‘‘and these are your lights of society. When a poor wretch like me is driven into crime by misery, these very men turn up their eyes in horror.’’ Young Minturn listened to the banker’s proposition in dismay. ‘‘T will never consent to it!’’ he desperately replied. “Oh, but you will, my young friend,” coolly and signifi- cantly rejoined Mr. Thorndyke. ‘‘ Remember that I caught you in the act of robbing my safe-———” ‘‘T only wanted to take a hundred dollars,” interrupted the clerk, with tears in his eyes. ‘‘l intended to replace them—in- deed, I did.”’ ‘*Come, come, you are not such a fool as to believe that such a story will avail you any. You are unarmed, I suppose; I have my revolver to bring you into speedy submission. I can easily overpower you and hand you over to the law. You know the penalty—at least five years in the State prison. Your wife and child #1 ‘* Alas! my wife and child,” exclaimed the unhappy man, bursting into tears and burying his face in his hands. ‘*You see the position you are in. There is no help for you but to do what I tell you. You will be ten thousand dollars richer by it. I will protect you from the law and send your wife and child to join you.”’ ‘*But my honor——”’ ‘‘ Bah! you forfeited it the moment you opened the safe.” The young man recognized how hopeless his position was. His giving way to temptation had, indeed, given his employer a powerful weapon, which the latter would use unsparingly. A thought of accepting the money and denouncing the banker to the police crossed his brain, but he knew that such an act would avail him nothing. His word would not be taken against the apparently wealthy banker’s, and there was the fact of his hav- ing attempted a robbery, which he could not wipe out. He had taken the first step in crime, and, as nsual, there was nothing to do but to plunge in deeper. ‘* T—will do what you say,”’ he said, with a deep sigh. ‘“T thought you would,” said Mr. Thorndyke, with a self- satisfied smile. ‘‘Of course you understand that it will be use- less for you to betray me. I shall leave the bank at the same time as you, and take my share of the proceeds with me; s0, even if you should be fool enough to give up your ten thousand to the police, I would merely declare that you were hiding the ” : a ; - ' Si S| ey ah = i oi Bi ll bate al ST Se AES OS 1 be o> PL ee “ Yes’ i - "> « * a Ss >< . a + > . ~- as ees SS ee —- comicbooks.com