Halsey & Co Part 12

"May I be one of your depositors?"

"Of course, if you wish. Mr. Allison is the cas.h.i.+er," and he introduced the old man to her.

"Give me a check, please," she said, and when she got it she filled it out for $10,000, handed it to the old man, saying:

"I am your first depositor, and am so glad to know it."

"I'll send you a book to-morrow," he said, as he put it away.

"No, don't send it; I'll call for it myself," she replied.

"Very well, Miss Ketcham."

The old cas.h.i.+er was knocked topsy-turvy at receiving a check for such a sum from a young typewriter. As they were going out Gertie Clayton came by and said:

"They told me you had opened a bank here, Bob, and I wanted to see if it was true," and she looked up at the sign on the big plate gla.s.s front.

Callie caught her hand, kissed her as girls do, and said:

"Oh, Gertie, it's just too grand for anything in there! Would you believe it, I am the first depositor on their books!"

"I wish I could put money in the bank, but I can't. It takes all I can make to keep a roof over our heads."

"Why don't you strike old Bowles for a raise in your salary?" Bob asked her.

"It is useless. He told me to-day he would not want me after this week."

"The deuce he did! What's the matter?" Bob blurted out.

"I am sure I don't know. He has never found fault with my work, He said I could go back to Bryant's, as he had said I could always find a place there."

"Well, don't you go there," said Bob. "I'll see if I can't find another place for you."

"I am such a trouble to you, Bob."

"Indeed you are not."

Fred and Callie had gone on ahead, and Bob walked with Gertie. They pa.s.sed Broker Bryant on Broadway, and Gertie gave a shudder as she saw him, saying to Bob:

"I am afraid of that man. He looks at me sometimes as though he wanted to kill me."

"He is bad enough to do it," Bob said. "He hates me like poison, and would poison me if he could."

"I believe he paid Mr. Bowles to discharge me."

"Why, what good would that do him?"

"He thinks I'll go back to his office if I can't get a place anywhere else."

"Well, if you can't get a place, you can have deskroom with us and do chance work. You must not go back to him," and Bob was very earnest in his way as he spoke.

Bob saw her to her home and then hastened to his own humble domicile.

When he got there he found the sidewalk in front of the tenement piled up with furniture. Two families were being ejected for non-payment of rent--$9 each. The landlord was there directing the officers. Bob looked on for a few minutes, and then quietly handed a ten-dollar bill to each of the two mothers, saying:

"Go across the street and get rooms. You can get 'em for $8 over there."

They both sprang up and showered blessings on his head and curses at the landlord.

One day a week later Bob received a tip from Gertie Clayton that Rock Island shares were going to be cornered. Bob saw Fred about it and they watched Rock Island. Pretty soon they saw it advance. Then Fred ordered 15,000 shares bought for the firm. The next day a man called and asked them to lend him $10,000 on a good stock worth double that amount. Fred asked to see the stock. It was K. & T. Fred took the stock to Mr.

Allison for his advice, and the bookkeeper denounced the stock as a clever forgery. When the man heard that he made a s.n.a.t.c.h for the paper, missed it, and then made a break for the door. Fred darted across his path and upset him near the door. He fell heavily, striking the plate gla.s.s and shattering it.

"I'm a dead man!" he gasped, rolling over on the floor, the blood spurting from a cut on the side of his head.

CHAPTER IX.--The Doctor and the Young Banker.

When Fred saw the red stream spurt from the man's neck he sprang back and exclaimed:

"It was the gla.s.s!"

Bob ran out from another room. So did the clerk, and Mr. Allison came around from behind the cas.h.i.+er's desk. Others who heard the gla.s.s rattle down on the sidewalk ran in to see what had happened.

"The man is bleeding to death!" cried some one. "Send for a doctor!"

"Call an ambulance!" said somebody, and both were summoned.

But ere either could get there the man was dead. The broken gla.s.s had cut a jugular vein and his life ebbed away inside of three minutes. A policeman ran in when he saw the crowd before the bank.

"How did it happen?" he asked.

"He fell against the gla.s.s and it cut his neck," replied the clerk.

"Did you see it?"

"Yes."

"Then I want you to go with me and tell the story to the coroner.

"We'll all do that," said Allison.

"Did you see it, too?"

"Yes."

"Then I want you, too."

"Very well."

The doctor who had been summoned came in and examined the wound.