Charles stood up as a gentle rap was sounded on the door.
"Come in," he called out, his husky voice cracking in his parched throat. The door was slowly opened and William Browne, pale, haggard, and trembling nervously, entered.
"Sit down, old man," Charles said, indicating a chair. "Sit down. I thought you"d come."
"Thank you." The movement toward the chair conveyed an idea of almost helpless groping.
"I am sorry I wasn"t fit to come down," Charles faltered. "I don"t show your house much respect, Billy, but at least I can hide myself when I have sense enough left."
The banker groaned as he sank into the chair and sat staring at the floor. His brother took another chair close to the table. He lowered his tangled head to the table and waited. But no further sound came from his companion.
"Oh, I"ve hit him hard--I"ve hit him hard this time!" Charles thought to himself. "He has lost all hope of me now. It is hard for him to say what he has to say, but he is going to say it. He looks like Uncle James now, with those grim lines about his mouth. Poor Billy! he deserves a better deal from me, for G.o.d knows he has been a good brother. No one else would have borne with me as he has all these years. But he has reached his limit. His endurance is ended. In the first place, I must leave the bank. Yes, that is first--then, then, yes, I must leave this house. He will say I have turned it into a hog-pen. He is calm. G.o.d! how calm he is! He is choosing his words. He has determined to speak gently. I can see that."
"Lessie and Ruth have gone out," William presently said, without raising his eyes. "Michael said you were here, and I took this opportunity to--to--"
"I know; I expected you," Charles heard his own voice as from a great distance, so faint was his utterance. He cleared his throat. "Yes, I knew you"d come. There was nothing else for you to do."
William"s head rocked to and fro despondently.
"I don"t think you know why I"ve come," he said, grimly, and he raised his all but bloodshot eyes and fixed them on his brother"s lowered head.
"Oh yes, you have heard of this last debauch of mine, and the d.a.m.nable acts that went with it--my expulsion from the club, the trial at the police court, along with other common loafers, and--"
"I hardly know whether I heard of them or not," William said, his stare now on his brother"s face. "You speak of yourself. What about me? My G.o.d! Charlie, what about me?"
"Oh, I know that you"ve gone the limit."
"Gone the limit? Then you know," William broke in, his lower lip hanging helplessly from his gleaming teeth. "You know about _me_--but how could you know? It is my own private matter, and--"
"I know that your patience is exhausted, Billy. I know that you are sensible enough to see that I am no fit occupant of your house. Your wife is a sensitive, delicate woman. Your child is--"
"Oh, _that_ is what you think I mean!" William broke in. "Great G.o.d! you think that I am worried about _that_! Listen to me, Charlie. You sit there accusing yourself, perhaps feeling that you have committed unpardonable sins, but look straight at me. As G.o.d is my judge, I"d be the happiest man alive if I could exchange places with you this morning.
You have done this, and you have done that, but you have been honest--honest--honest--honest! I"ve seen you tried. I"ve seen you need money badly, but you have never touched a penny that was not your own.
Charlie, I am a thief!"
Charles straightened up in his chair. He laid his slender hand with the long fingers and curving nails on the table and stared, as if bewildered by what he had heard.
"I don"t know what you mean, Billy," he said, slowly shaking his head.
"You can"t be in earnest."
"But I am," the banker groaned. "I have wanted to tell you for a week past, and I would have done so if you hadn"t begun to drink again. Do you remember when I came to your desk Friday afternoon? I wanted then to ask you into my office, but I saw you had been drinking, and I knew that you"d not understand. I"ve taken money from the vaults, Charlie. I"m short sixty thousand dollars, and there is no chance now to avoid detection."
It was as if the declaration had completely sobered the younger man. He rose to his feet, towering above the shrunken form in the chair.
"You can"t mean that seriously," he faltered, his drink-flushed face paling. "Oh, you can"t, Billy!"
"But I do. My transactions have been secret; through a broker in New York I bought copper on a margin. It kept going against me till all my funds and available collateral were used up. I was sure it would win.
All h.e.l.l told me it would win. I couldn"t stand the disgrace of failure.
It meant losing my position, too. I struggled with it all one night in the bank, and the next morning, when the time-lock opened the vaults, I took the money and, with it in my pocket, I went to New York and put it up."
"You did? You did? My G.o.d! Billy, and lost it!"
"Within twenty-four hours. Charlie, you have been a drunkard, but your soul has remained clean. But I"m lost--I"m lost. I"ll be sent to jail.
My wife will shrink in shame from the public gaze. My child will grow up to see that I have set her, by my own act, into a despised cla.s.s. Great G.o.d! that little trusting thing will have to bear my just punishment!
So--so you thought I"d come here to reproach you, eh? You say you have been turned _out_ of a club. I am being turned _into_ a prison. Charlie, I was a coward when I took that money. I am a coward now, and I cannot face this thing. You must not object to what I have to do. It is dishonorable, but it is more honorable than the other."
"You don"t mean--you _can"t_ mean--"
"There is nothing else to do, Charlie. Don"t you see that in this way it will be all over at once? Think of the arrest, the long trial, the certain conviction, the parting, the stripes, the clipped hair! No, no, you must not oppose me. Ruth will forget me then, but, alive and in jail, I"d be a canker on her young soul. Lessie could marry again. G.o.d knows I"d want her to do so. Yes, it is the only way out, Charlie."
The drunkard seemed a drunkard no longer. He might have been an impa.s.sioned young priest full of a holy desire to comfort as he stood before the wilted man and clasped his hands. He knelt at his brother"s knees, he caught the tense fingers in his.
"You shall not kill yourself!" he cried. "G.o.d will show you a way to avoid it. I feel it within me. There must be a way--there must!"
"There is no other way!" William groaned. "I"ve thought of everything under heaven till I"m crazed with it all." He stood up. He put his limp arm about the shoulders of his brother.
"Will it be known at once? Do the directors suspect?" Charles asked.
"Not yet, but you know the bank examiner will be here Thursday. It can"t be kept from him. If I were unmolested for three months I could replace the money. I"m sure more than that amount will come out of the Western mining lands I hold. The sale is made, and only a legal technicality holds back the final settlement."
"Ah, then if you confessed the truth to the directors, and promised to replace the money, would they--"
"They would send me to jail, just the same," William answered. "They are that sort, every man of them. In their eyes a man who will steal once will steal again, and they may be right--they may be right."
"Nevertheless, you must not think of--the--the other thing, Billy. For G.o.d"s sake, don"t!" Charles pleaded.
"What else can I do?" William swayed in his brother"s embrace and turned toward the door. Charles released him, and stood speechless in sheer helplessness as his brother stalked to the door, opened it, and went slowly down the stairs.
Left alone, the younger man turned to a window and stood staring blankly out into the sunshine. Presently he went to the bureau, opened a drawer, and took out the flask of whisky. Taking a gla.s.s, he poured some of the fluid out and then stood staring at it in surprise. A strange thing had happened. It was like a miracle, and yet psychologists have said that it belongs to the regular order of nature. Charles was conscious of no desire for the drink before him; in fact, he was averse to it. He was under the sway of a high spiritual emotion, which the thing in his hand seemed vaguely to oppose. He marveled over the change in himself as he held the gla.s.s up to the light.
"I"m asking poor Billy to be a man," he said, "while I am less than one myself. Strange! strange!" he muttered, wonderingly, "but I feel as if I shall never drink again--never, never!" With a hand that was quite steady he took the gla.s.s to the window and emptied its contents on the gra.s.s in the little plot below. Then he began to shave himself, and after that was done he dressed himself carefully.
The church-bells were ringing.
"Oh, I must save him--I must save them all!" he kept saying. "Something must be done. But what?"
CHAPTER IV
It was Wednesday night. William Browne had not come home to dinner.
Charles looked into the dining-room. Celeste and Ruth were in their places at the table.
"William telephoned that he could not come up," Celeste said, as he sat down. "He says he has work to do at the bank to-night."
"Yes. I"m going back myself at once," Charles answered. "In fact, I am not a bit hungry. I had something late this afternoon--sandwiches and tea. If you will excuse me, I won"t stay."