A Daughter of Delilah — page 149: what you’re looking at

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

140 “THE NOTES WERE MADE BY ME?” he took a greasy wallet from an inner pocket, from which he produced one of the fatal notes, being careful not to let it escape his hawk-like claws. ‘That is one of them,’’ he snarled. ‘‘That is one of the notes by which I have been swindled. I'll hunt the forger to his very death!”’ Astute as Mr. Jabez Alston was, it never occurred to him that the Jew was playing a part. It never occurred to him that he was the dupe of a deep-laid scheme. ‘‘Tam bewildered,’’ he thought. ‘‘What can St. Leon- ards have had to do with this?’’ He glanced at the money- lender, adding: ‘‘The fiend will go to any length!”’ ‘‘Mr. Solomon,’’ he said, icily, ‘‘I fail to see how you have been swindled. It appears to me that this is an or- dinary business transaction. ’”’ The Jew’s eyes glittered with a sudden fire of avarice and triumph. ‘“You acknowledge the notes!’’ he gasped. ‘‘Your bank- | ers feared they were forgeries, and I notified the police to await my instructions. I am sorry I did this.”’ Mr. Alston made a gesture of annoyance. ‘‘T will redeem them now,’’ he said. ‘‘The notes were made by me!”’ He unlocked a drawer in his desk, and took therefrom a check-book. A placid smile overspread his face, and with a firm hand he wrote a check for sixty thousand doi- lars, the full amount of the two notes. One minute, andthe check and notes had changed hands. Mr. Solomon was bowed out, and when he was alone the financier uttered a deep groan. ‘My son a forger!’? he muttered. ‘‘At last he has de- EOMIGCHDOOKS (E(0)