Geoffrey Hamstead Part 43

Mrs. Priest was called.

She came in with more a.s.surance now, as she had become convinced, from seeing Hampstead in the dock and guarded by the police, that the matter in question did not refer to her consumption of coal, or her legal right to perquisites.

"Mrs. Priest, did you ever see that waistcoat before?" said Rankin.

"See it before! Didn't you take it out of me own hands not two hours ago? What are ye after, man?"

Rankin explained, that the magistrate wished to know all about it.

"Well, I'll tell his lords.h.i.+p the hull story: Ye see, yer 'anor, the boy gets the clothes from Mr. Geoffrey and brings them up to me last Wednesday night begone and says they was give to him, an' the next day I wus lookin' through them, and I thought I'd sell this weskit becas the patthern is a thrifle large for a child, an' I puts me 'and into these 'ere pockets on the inside an' I pulls out a paper--"

"Stop! Is this the paper you found?"

"Yes, that's it; 'an I thought it might be of some use, as it hed figures on it and writin'. An' I says to Mr. Renkin, when he come into my room to-day fur to get a cup--"

"Never mind what I came in for," said Rankin, coloring.

"An' I says to Mr. Rankin, sez I, 'Is this paper any use, do you think, to Mr. 'Ampstead.' An' he looks at it awful hard and sez, 'Where did yer get it? An' then I ups and told him (for I wus quite innercent, and so wus the boy) that I had got it out of the weskit--out of these 'ere inside pockets. An' then I shows him that other weskit an' how the lining of one weskit had been cut out and sewn onter the other--as anybody can see as compares the two--an' I never saw any weskit with four long pockets on the inside before, an' I wondered what they wus fur.

"An' I hedn't got the words out of me mouth before Mr. Renkin turned as white as the drippin' snow and says, 'My G.o.d!' an' he grabs the two weskits widout me leave or license, an' also the paper, an' I thought he'd break his neck down the stairs in the dark. An' that's all I know about it until the cops brought me and the child here in the hack, after we put on our best clothes fur to be decent to answer to the charge before yer lords.h.i.+p; an' if that's all yer lords.h.i.+p wants ter know, I'd like to axe yer lords.h.i.+p if there'll be anythin' comin' to me fur comin'

down here widout resistin' the cops?"

As Rankin finished with Mrs. Priest, the police magistrate reminded the prisoner that he had the right to cross-examine the witness.

Hampstead smiled, and said he had no doubt all she said was true.

Rankin then read the marks on the piece of paper. It was a longish slip of paper, about three inches wide, and had been cut off from a large sheet of office letter-paper. There had been printing at the top of this sheet when it was entire. On the piece cut off still remained the printed words "Western Union." On the opposite side of the paper, which seemed to have been used as a wrapper and fastened with a pin, were the figures, in blue pencil, "$50,000," and, below, a direction or memorandum: "For Mont. Teleg. Co'y. Toronto." These words had had a pen pa.s.sed through them.

The excitement caused by this evidence was increased when Hampstead arose and requested to be allowed to withdraw his consent to be tried before the magistrate.

"I see," he said, smiling, "that my friend Mr. Rankin has been led astray by some facts which can be thoroughly well explained. But I must have time and opportunity to get such evidence as I require."

The magistrate rather sternly replied that he had consented to his trial to-day, and said he was ready for trial, and that the request for a change would be refused. The trial must go on.

The Montreal Telegraph clerk was then called, and identified the wrapper as the one that had been around the stolen fifty thousand dollars. He had run his pen through the written words before depositing the money in the Victoria Bank. He again identified by their numbers the two one-thousand dollar bills found on Jack, and he was then told to stand down until again required.

The receiving teller of the bank could not swear positively to the wrapper. He remembered that there had been a paper around the bills with blue writing on it, which he thought he had not removed when counting the bills.

Rankin then requested the police to bring in John Cresswell.

Want of proper nourishment had had much to do with Jack's mental weakness. Besides the exhaustion which he had suffered from, he had not, until his friends looked after him, eaten or drunk anything for over forty hours. He had neglected the food brought him by the police.

As the constable half supported him to the box, he was still a pitiable object, in spite of the champagne the fellows had made him swallow. As his bodily strength had come back under stimulant, his intellect had returned also with proportional strength, which of course was not great.

His ideas as to what was going on were of the vaguest kind. He looked surprised to see Geoffrey in custody, but smiled across the room to him and nodded.

After he was sworn, Rankin asked him:

"You went away last Wednesday on a schooner called the North Star?"

"Yes."

"Did any person tell you to go in this way, instead of by steamer or railway?"

"I think it was Geoffrey's suggestion at first. I had to go away on private business. I think we arranged the manner of my going together."

"Did any person tell you to take your valises to the yacht club early on Wednesday morning?"

"I think it was Hampstead's idea originally, and I thought it was a good one."

"You wished to go away secretly?"

"Well, we discussed that point. I was going by rail, but Hampstead thought the schooner was best."

"You evidently did everything he told you?"

"Certainly, I did," said Jack, as he smiled across to Geoffrey.

"Hampstead has the best head for management I know of."

"Quite so. No doubt about that! Now, since the accident to the boats in the lake some bills were found upon you. Are those your bills?"

(producing them).

"Yes, they look like my bills. The seven one-hundred dollars I got myself, and the two for one thousand each I got--" Jack stopped here and looked troubled. He looked across at Geoffrey and remained silent. It came to him for the first time that Hampstead was being charged with something that had gone wrong in the bank about this money.

The magistrate said sharply "I wish to know where you got that money.

You will be good enough to answer without delay."

Jack looked worried. "My money was all in smallish bills, and either Geoffrey or I (I forget which) suggested that I had better take these two American one-thousand-dollar bills, as they would be smaller in my pocket. He slipped these two out of a package of bills which I imagine were all of the same denomination."

Rankin evidently was wis.h.i.+ng to spin out the time, for he glanced at the side door whenever it was opened.

He went on asking questions and showing that Geoffrey had been at the bottom of everything, and in the mean time three men appeared in the room, and one of them handed Rankin a parcel.

"During your trial this morning I think I heard you say that the bills you saw on Hampstead's desk were all dark-green colored?"

"I think they were all the same color as these two. He ran his finger over them as he drew these two out."

"I have some money here," said Rankin. "Does this package look anything like the one you then saw?"

"I could not swear to it. It looks like it."

Even the magistrate was excited now. The news had flown through the business part of the city that Geoffrey Hampstead had been arrested and was on trial for stealing the fifty thousand dollars. The news stirred men as if the post-office had been blown up with dynamite. The court-room was jammed. When word had been pa.s.sed outside that things looked bad for Hampstead, as much as five dollars was paid by a broker for standing room in the court. It had also become known that Maurice Rankin had caused the arrest to be made himself, and that n.o.body but he knew what could be proved. People thought at first that the bank authorities were forcing the prosecution, and wondered that they had not employed an older man. The fact that this young sprig, professionally unknown, had a.s.sumed the entire responsibility himself, gave a greater interest to the proceedings.

The magistrate leaned over his desk and asked quietly:

"What money is that you have there, Mr. Rankin?"

Maurice's naturally incisive voice sounded like a bell in the death-like stillness of the court-room.

"These," he said, "are what I will prove to be the forty-eight thousand-dollar bills stolen from the bank."