A MYSTERY EXPLAINED.
Mr. Knowles regarded his companion with undisguised astonishment.
"Is there anything wrong about the money?" he inquired, a gleam of
anxiety in his eyes.
"Pardon me," said Royal Bryant, flushing, as he was thus recalled to
himself; "you are justified in asking the question, and I trust you
will not regard me as impertinently inquisitive if I inquire if you
can remember from whom you received this piece of money."
"Certainly I remember," Mr. Knowles replied, but flushing painfully in
his turn at the question.
"Will you kindly tell me the name of the person from whom you took
it?"
Mr. Knowles appeared even more embarrassed than before, and hesitated
about replying.
"I have a special and personal reason for asking you," Mr. Bryant
continued. "See!" he added, holding the gold-piece before him where
the light struck full upon it, "you perceive this coin is marked," and
he pointed out some vertical scratches which had been made just inside
the margin. "I made those marks myself."
"Can that be possible!" exclaimed his companion, astonished.
"Yes. This very piece of money was in my possession as late as five
o'clock last Saturday afternoon."
"I cannot understand," said Mr. Knowles, looking mystified.
"Let me explain," returned Mr. Bryant. "I owed my copyist exactly five
dollars, and, having nothing smaller in bills than tens, I was obliged
to pay her with this coin. While she was getting ready to leave the
office, I sat toying with it and scratched it, as you see, with the
point of my penknife; then I gave it to Miss Allandale, and thought
no more about the matter. But just before you came in this morning, I
received a note from her saying she had been arrested for passing the
coin with which I had paid her, it having been declared counterfeit,
and she begged me to come at once to her assistance and try to prove
her innocence. I was just on the point of doing so when you called."
"What a very singular circumstance," Mr. Knowles remarked,
reflectively. "It appears all the more so to me from the fact that I
also received this piece of money no later than seven o'clock on last
Saturday evening."
"You amaze me!" exclaimed Mr. Bryant. "Pray explain to me how you came
by it--it may help to solve this very perplexing mystery, for I am
confident that the coin is genuine, in spite of the trouble it has
brought upon Miss Allandale."
"Yes, I will be frank with you," his companion returned, but flushing
again, "and tell you that, in order to make this payment to you, I was
obliged to borrow the money and gave, as security, a valuable mantel
clock, which was one of my wife's wedding gifts. In other words, I
pawned it. It goes against my pride to confess it; but the idea of
debt is horrible to me: and, having been in very straitened
circumstances of late, from sickness in my family and other causes, I
had no other means of meeting my obligations to you, while I hoped to
be able to redeem the clock before the time allotted should expire."
"Mr. Knowles, I thank you heartily for telling me this, while, at the
same time, I am deeply pained," gravely returned Royal Bryant. "I
would not have had you so pressed for a great deal; my claim against
you can wait indefinitely, and you need feel no anxiety regarding it.
Take your own time about it, for I am sure that I can safely trust a
man to whom the idea of debt is so repulsive."
"You are very good," said Mr. Knowles, in a grateful tone.
"I shall return you this amount," the young lawyer resumed, "but in
bills, for I wish to retain this gold-piece; and I beg that you will
go at once and redeem your wife's clock. I am also going to throw a
little business in your way, for I would like to retain you as a
witness for Miss Allandale, and you shall be well paid for your
services. Now please give me the name of the pawnbroker from whom you
took the money."
"Solon Retz, No. ---- Third avenue."
"Ah, yes; I know him for a scheming and not over-scrupulous person. I
fought a tough battle with him a year or so ago."
But Royal Bryant still looked greatly perplexed.
He could not understand how the pawnbroker could have had that
particular gold-piece to loan upon Mr. Knowles' clock, before seven
o'clock on Saturday evening, when Edith Allandale had been arrested,
that same night, for trying to pass it off upon the grocer of whom she
had spoken in her note.
To him it seemed an inexplicable mystery.
However, he knew--he could take his oath--that the coin which he now
held in his hand was the identical piece of money which he had paid to
his beautiful but unfortunate copyist for her last week's work, and he
was also reasonably sure that it was not a counterfeit.
"I suppose you will have no objection to testifying as to how and from
whom you received the money?" he inquired of Mr. Knowles, after a few
moments' reflection.
"Certainly not, if such testimony will be of any benefit to the young
lady's cause," he readily replied. "And," he added, "I can easily
prove the truth of my assertions, as I have here the ticket which I
received from the pawnbroker."
"Ah! that is well thought of, and will undoubtedly score a strong
point for Miss Allandale," Mr. Bryant exclaimed, with animation. "And
now allow me to advance you the fee for your services as a witness,"
he added, as he pressed a ten-dollar note into his companion's hand.
"This will be sufficient to redeem your clock and remunerate you for
the time you may lose in appearing as a witness. Hereafter, Mr.
Knowles, if you find yourself short of cash, pray do not be troubled
about what is owing me--do not try to pay it until it is perfectly
convenient for you to do so."
"You are very considerate, Mr. Bryant," the man returned, with evident
emotion. "I cannot tell you how your generosity touches me, for the
world has gone very badly with me of late."
"Well, we will hope for better times in the future for you, sir," was
the cheery response of the noble-hearted young lawyer. "Now I must be
off," he added, "and I would like you to meet me at the Thirtieth
street station-house in an hour from now. I shall know by that time
what I shall be able to do for my young friend."
He bade the man good-morning and bowed him out of his office, and,
five minutes later, was on his way to the assistance of beautiful
Edith Allandale.
Before boarding a car, he stepped into a bank near-by and had the gold
coin tested.
It proved to be just as he had thought--it was perfectly good, and if
Edith had been arrested for passing it, some one would have to stand
damages for having subjected her to such an injustice.
Upon his arrival at the station-house, and requesting an interview
with Miss Allandale as her attorney, the police sergeant conducted him
directly to the room occupied by Edith, who looked so pale and wan
from anxiety and confinement that the young man's conscience smote him
keenly, although his heart bounded with sudden joy when he saw how her
sad face lighted at the sight of him.
"This is the most outrageous thing I ever heard of, Miss Allandale,"
he exclaimed, as he clasped her cold hand and looked regretfully into
the heavy blue eyes raised to his.
"I was sure you would come," she murmured, with a sigh of relief, but
flushing for an instant beneath his ardent gaze, while her lips
quivered with suppressed emotion, for his tone of sympathy had almost
unnerved her.
"Of course I would come--I would go to the ends of the earth to serve
you," he began, eagerly. "I am filled with remorse when I think what
you must have suffered and that I am responsible for your trouble,
though unintentionally and unconsciously."
"Yes, I am sure you could not have known that the money was
counterfeit," said Edith, wearily.
"And it was not," he quickly returned. "It is a genuine coin and
negotiable anywhere."
"But I was told by two different persons that it was spurious," Edith
replied, in a tone of surprise.
"Then you were misinformed in both cases, for I have had it tested at
a bank, and it has been pronounced good," returned her companion.
"You have had it tested? How can that be possible, when the grocer who
caused me to be arrested has the money in his possession this moment?"
the young girl exclaimed, in amazement.
Royal Bryant smiled as he drew forth the half-eagle which he had
received from Mr. Knowles, and laid it in her palm.
"That is the five-dollar gold-piece that I gave you on Saturday
evening," he remarked, in a quiet tone.
"Have you seen the grocer? Did you get it from him?" Edith gasped.
"No; an old client of mine brought it to me, about half an hour ago,
in part payment of a debt which he owes me."
"I do not understand--it cannot be the same," said Edith, with a look
of perplexity.
"But it is," was the smiling reply. "Look at it closely, and you will
find some fresh scratches upon one side of it--do you see?"
"Yes," the young girl admitted.
"Very well; I made them with my penknife during a fit of
absent-mindedness, while you were putting on your hat and shawl on
Saturday evening," Royal Bryant explained. "It was all the money I
had, excepting some large bills, and I was obliged to give it to you,
even though I knew it was not a convenient form--one is so liable to
lose such a small piece. I am sure I do not know what possessed me to
deface it in the way I did," he continued, after a slight pause; "but
there the marks are, fortunately, and I could swear to the coin among
a hundred others of the same denomination."
"Yes, I remember, now," Edith remarked, reflectively; "I noticed the
gold-piece in your hands and that you were using your knife upon it;
but how could it have come into the possession of your client? Surely
the grocer would not have parted with it voluntarily, for it was all
the proof he had against me."
"No; my client, Mr. Knowles, obtained it from a pawnbroker at No. ----
Third avenue," Mr. Bryant replied.
Instantly the red blood mounted to the girl's fair brow, and, like a
flash, Royal Bryant comprehended how all her trouble had come about.
"Yes," she sighed, after a moment, as if in reply to some question
from him, "the week before I went into your office I was obliged to
borrow some money upon a beautiful watch of mamma's. It was a very
valuable one, but the man would only advance me three dollars upon it.
Of course I felt that I must redeem it with the very first money I
earned, and I went immediately to the pawnbroker's to get it on
leaving your office. He seemed averse to the early redemption of the
watch, and threw my money impatiently into the drawer. The next
instant he gave it back to me, angrily telling me that it was
counterfeit, and charging me with trying to cheat him. But, even now,
I cannot understand--"
"So the pawnbroker threw your money into his drawer, did he?"
interposed Mr. Bryant, eagerly grasping at this important point.
"Yes; but, as I said, he returned it immediately to me, and I was
obliged to go home without my watch. I was in great distress because,
Mr. Bryant, it was all the money I had, and there were things that
mamma and I must have in order to be comfortable over Sunday," Edith
confessed, with crimson cheeks and downcast eyes, the sight of which
made her companion's heart ache for her. "Mamma suggested that the
money might not be bad, after all," she continued, determined that he
should know the whole truth about the matter; "that, possibly, the
pawnbroker had taken that way to retain the watch, with the hope of
ultimately securing it; so I started out to make my purchases. The
grocer made no objection to the money and gave me my change without a
word. But half an hour later he appeared with an officer and had me
arrested. He would not have pressed the matter if I could have
returned his money; but, as I could not, and he claimed he had
suffered from so many similar cases of swindling, he was obdurate, and
I was obliged to come here."
"It was shameful!" said the young lawyer, indignantly. "It was a
heartless thing to do. But, my little friend, I think we have a very
clear case, and you will soon be fully vindicated."
"Oh! do you? I shall be very grateful--" Edith began, then stopped,
choking back a sob that had almost burst from her trembling lips.
"I see you do not quite comprehend how that can be," continued her
friend, ignoring her emotion. "But the piece of money which the
pawnbroker pretended to return to you was not the same that you had
received from me--it was a spurious one which he had at hand for the
express purpose evidently of tricking the unwary, and Mr. Solon Retz
will, ere long, be compelled to exchange places with you, if I can
possibly bring him to justice."