Raymond S. Spears

“ But man would never believe, the courts would never believe, that he had not taken that money with the intent to steal it. The chance that God would perform a miracle in favor of a mere bank cashier, when so many bank presidents had gone to jail on circumstantial evidence, seemed remote indeed.
In all his mature life—and he had matured early—Mr. Abner Shell had never been angry. He had been righteously indignant a number of times, but such was his code of life and morals, that as long as things were as they ought to be, he could not be angry. ”

“ He fled precipitately to the river again, and took the New Orleans packet. He changed at Memphis for the railroad, and went to Little Rock, Arkansas, fled back to Batesville, and up to Springfield, Missouri, and then back-tracked to Evansville, Indiana, and down to New Orleans—driven all the way by the glances of men he thought watched him intently.
Mr. Abner Shell had never given the thought of flight a moment’s consideration in all his precise life in the banking business. Flight was for the indulgence of the lawless and the wayward. ”

“ On the vault deck was a suit-case of identical appearance. To Shell’s nervous eyes, all suit-cases of dark tan leather with nickle hasps were alike, however. He brought out the day cash box and made things ready for his own work.
Soon the money was floating through his hands, and after a minute’s unaccustomed fumbling, he was back in his own automatic stride. If sometimes he had to count the money three times instead of twice, it merely proved how infallible is the fallibility of the human mind.
Then appeared Faxe, President Faxe, coming out of his office. ”

“ He fled, his heart protesting against the monstrous event that had driven him out into that first flight down the lake. His thoughts had little time to marshal themselves coherently, for on all sides were the unusual and the strange, the unexpected and the threatening. He wore himself into tatters of mental distress, thinking of the hard, cold fact known to all men, irrespective of place and condition, that there is in the end no escape for the wicked, for the sinner, for the wrong-doer. ”

“ On all sides of him were other people. Then, suddenly, he saw President Faxe of the Mixlan National Bank—a face and figure unmistakable, but exceedingly jaunty in bearing. President Faxe was away from home. His black tile was replaced by a fine Panama, and his conventional black suit was displaced by a gay traveling suit of pale shades, red necktie and striped shirt. Shell was inexpressibly shocked, too, to see that of the party President Faxe was engaged in piquant conversation with a most charming woman. ”

“ The detective would follow him—there was a later train than the one he had taken. The detective might—the detective almost certainly would—arrive on that train. He might be already on the way through the woods in the automobile stage, which would be due in half an hour.
Mr. Abner Shell went down to the office, paid his bill and called for a livery launch to take him to the foot of the lake, where there was another hotel, and a road that led to another railroad. He explained, with a wrench to his conscience, that his asthma had begun to bother him. ”

“ When his bank said to their faithful cashier, “Go now and take your vacation!” he went, and as he went, he picked up his suit-case, which stood right where he had left it, for in the course of events his vacation would come due on that day and he was prepared. On reaching his room in the quiet summer resort beside a little lake in the Adirondacks, he proceeded to discard his black coat, his black tie, and so on, in favor of conventional, dignified summer-resort costume. ”

“ In which a bank cashier becomes
the plaything of the fates
———by———
Raymond S. Spears
MR. ABNER SHELL was a good, patient, honest man. From the day he was born, he was dignified. In childhood, his playmates left to his judgment problems of right and wrong, and never by scowl or act disputed his decisions. Unflinching, exact, constant, never would he willfully inflict upon any man an injury. His respect for property was so sacred that nothing could shake it—not even the acts of legislators and the decisions of the Supreme Court. ”

“ Thus he went through a stage, common enough not to be an adventure in ordinary men, but a tremendous experience for the man on whom Fate, or something, had strapped $145,000 that did not belong to him, aggravating the matter by circumstances and occasions that were not merely suspicious, but a circumstantial certainty. ”

“ If Fate had been so very unkind to a faithful and clean-minded man, then that man must make the best of it. Mr. Shell set about wondering what would be the best of it. It was no easy task.
He thought of going right back to the bank and telling his story—but what good would that do? President Elijah Faxe would listen to the explanation grimly, with conscientious regard for the safety of the money entrusted in his bank’s hands by the three thousand depositors. He would agree that Mr. ”