A FATHER'S JUST WRATH STRIKES
A very few minutes later a knock sounded at the door.
Then Bert Dodge entered very abruptly, his tongue starting with
the turning off the knob.
"Well, have you seen the mucker Prescott?" called Bert airily.
"Was he scared to-----"
Here Bert caught sight of the two West Pointers and stopped short,
while his father entered behind him.
"No," broke in Holmes, dryly, "Prescott wasn't even scared silly."
"Oh, you shut up, you two!" growled Bert. "Mr. Griffin, what
are these pieces of airy nothing doing here?"
"That advice about preserving silence will very well apply to
you, also, Mr. Bert Dodge," rejoined the lawyer. "Take a seat
in the background, please. I want to talk with your father."
"What's the matters" demanded Bert, not taking a seat, but advancing
and leaning against the top of the lawyer's desk. "Has this fellow
won you over with a lot of his smooth talk?"
"Mr. Griffin I warned you that Prescott is a most accomplished liar."
Instead of flaring up at this insult, Dick merely turned to exchange
amused smiles with Holmes.
At this moment the attorney was paying no heed to Bert, but was
placing a chair courteously for the elder Dodge.
"Now, Mr. Dodge," began the lawyer, speaking rapidly and paying
heed only to the father, "I am very glad that I insisted on seeing
Mr. Prescott before going further in the case that you placed
with me. I expected only a denial. I have, instead, been astounded.
Now, listen, sir, while I tell you the all but incredible story."
Thereupon Lawyer Griffin launched into a swift narration of the
story told by Dick Prescott and Dr. Carter.
As soon as Bert Dodge began to get wind of what it was all about,
his face became ghastly.
"Stop right here, Griffin!" commanded Bert. "This is all a tissue
of lies that have been sprung upon you."
"Silence, young man!" commanded the lawyer sternly. "This talk
is between your father and myself. As for you, young man, remember
to what you have sworn, and bear in mind that the upshot of it
all for you may yet be a term of years in the penitentiary."
As the lawyer went on talking there could not be a moment's suspicion
that the elder Dodge had been concerned in the plot of perjury.
Mr. Dodge had been guilty only of believing his son and of sharing
the latter's feigned indignation.
"Now, Dr. Carter has confirmed all of this over the 'phone, and
he assured me that Dr. Davidson stood ready to add his testimony,"
wound up Lawyer Griffin. "Mr. Dodge, what is to be done?"
"Why," stammered Bert's father, "we---we shall have to drop the
whole case."
"What?" raged Bert, his face going purple with anger. "Drop the
case on any such stacked-up mess of lies? Father, are you losing
all the nerve you ever had?"
"Young man," broke in Lawyer Griffin severely, "you do not appear
to have the slightest idea of values. I do not for a moment imagine
that your father will go any further in this matter. If he does,
it will be necessary for him to get another attorney."
"Why!" challenged Bert, glaring at the lawyer.
"Because the outcome of this case, if it reached court, would
be your indictment for conspiracy and the subornation of perjury.
The latter is one of the most heinous crimes known to the law."
"But I tell you this is all a tissue of lies trumped up against
me!" stormed young Dodge.
While this conversation was going on Dick and Greg remained silent
in their seats. They had no need to talk. They were enjoying it
all too much just as it was going.
"Do you expect, Dodge, that a court and a jury would take your
unsupported word against the testimony of two such men as Dr.
Carter and the Rev. Mr. Davidson? Do you imagine, for a moment,
that Fessenden and your other tools wouldn't become utterly frightened
and confess to everything against you? Do you imagine that anything
you could do or say would save you, Dodge, from going to the
penitentiary for ten or fifteen years?"
The attorney's cool, incisive manner brought Bert Dodge to his
senses.
A deathly fear assailed him. His knees began to shake.
"The case is too well fixed against me," he replied hoarsely.
"Ye---es, I guess you had better drop it all."
The elder Dodge now sprang to his feet.
"Drop it, you young scoundrel?" he yelled at his son. "Why did
you ever drag me into any such infamous piece of business? I went
into this believing that you told me the truth."
"I---I did, sir," stammered Bert.
"Bah, you are a perjurer, you young villain!" raged his father.
"Griffin, this matter cannot go a step further. You will destroy
those miserable affidavits before my eyes!"
"I am sorry, Mr. Dodge," replied the lawyer, "but I am not at
liberty to do that."
"You can't destroy the affidavits?" howled Bert, his voice breaking.
"Why not! Aren't you our lawyer?"
"I am even more an officer of the court than I am anyone's attorney,"
replied Mr. Griffin gravely. "A lawyer has no right to conceal
a crime when he knows one has been committed not even to save his
own clients."
"Wh---what do you propose to do, Griffins?" demanded the elder
Dodge, shaking.
"Why, I hope to save your worthless son from prosecution, Mr.
Dodge," returned the lawyer. "But a crime has been committed,
in that your son procured others to swear to false affidavits
True, the affidavits have not yet been presented in court, and
on that I base my hope that the matter will not have to go further.
But I feel in honor bound to submit the facts to the district
attorney, and to be governed by his instructions."
"You are going to try to send me to jail?" gasped Dodge, clutching
at the ledge of a bookcase to save himself from falling.
"I am going to try to persuade the district attorney to let the
matter drop," replied Griffin. "It will be the district attorney's
decision that will govern the matter."
"Then what are you doing fooling around here, governor?" screamed
Bert hoarsely. "Don't you see that it's your job to hurry to the
district attorney as fast as you can go? Use your money, your
political influence---"
In his extreme terror young Dodge seemed to forget that he was
providing amusement for his enemies.
But Mr. Dodge cut in quickly. Advancing a step or two, he brought
his uplifted stick down sharply, once, across his son's shoulders.
With a snarl Bert wheeled, crouching as though to spring upon
his father.
Prescott and Holmes jumped up, prepared to step in. But the banker
was not cowed by the evil look in his son's face.
"Begone, you young villain!" quivered the old man. "Get out of
my sight. Never let me see you again. Don't dare to go to what
was once your home, or I'll have you thrown out. I disown you!
You are no blood of mine!"
"I guess you forget," sneered Bert cunningly that you are responsible
for me, and that you will have to pay my bills."
"Not a penny of them," retorted the banker sternly. "It is you
who forget that you reached the age of twenty-one just three days
ago. You are your own master, sir---and your own provider! Now,
go---and never again let any of your family hear from the scoundrel
who has disgraced us all."
Vainly Bert opened his mouth, trying to speak. The words would
not come. His father again advancing threateningly, Bert edged
towards the door.
"This looks like your fun, as it is your work, Dick Prescott!"
snarled the wretch. "Wait! If it takes me ten years I'll make
you suffer for this!"
Crash! Mr. Dodge had again raised his cane to strike the young
man. But Bert had pulled open the door, closing it after him
as he fled, and only the plate-glass panel stopped the fall of
the cane.
"I'll pay for the damage done to your door Griffin," promised
the banker.
"Don't worry about that, sir," nodded the attorney.
"I feel that we've been here long enough, gentlemen," broke in
Cadet Prescott, as he and Greg rose. "Mr. Dodge, I can't begin
to tell you how sorry I am that this scene was necessary."
"I feel sure of your sympathy. Prescott, and of yours, too, Holmes.
Thank you both," replied the banker. "You are both fine, manly
young fellows. I wish I had been favored with a son like either
of you. Now, I have no son!"
Dick and Greg got away as unobtrusively as they could.
Bert Dodge did try to go home to see his Mother, but, by his father's
orders, he was put out of the house by two men servants.
Immediately after that Bert vanished from Gridley. At first he
tried the effect of writing whining, penitent, begging letters home.
Receiving no replies, Bert finally drifted off into the space of
the wide world.
Later on in the course of these chronicles he may reappear.
Lawyer Griffin consulted with the district attorney, and it was
decided not to make perjury cases out of the affair. Fessenden,
Bettrick and Deevers, however, were all three warned and the district
attorney filed away the lying affidavits, in case a use for them
should ever come up.
By degrees the story of Bert Dodge's latest infamy leaked out.
The news, however, did not come through any word spread by either
of our young West Pointers.