PERFECTLY LEGAL.
FILLED, by the positive assurances of his lawyer, with the hope of
success, Malcolm, in a few months, became so much occupied with his
suit that he neglected his business, which, at best, gave his family
but a poor support. A large fortune was almost within his reach, and
he could think of nothing but the near prospect of grasping it. What
were the coppers, the fips, and the levies that came in so slowly over
his counter, compared with property worth, at the lowest estimate, a
hundred thousand dollars? No wonder that he felt contempt for his petty
business, and neglected it.
Some time before the lawyers were ready to have the case called up for
trial, Malcolm was beginning to feel sorely the effects of his want of
attention to business. Several small notes had to lie over, thereby
hurting his credit, and preventing him from keeping up a selling stock
of goods.
Conscious that he was committing an error in suffering his mind to be
so diverted from his business, Malcolm strove hard with himself to
correct the error, but without effect. His eyes could not rest upon his
own dry stubble field, for looking at the golden grain waving in fields
beyond.
At length creditors began to be urgent for their money; business grew
worse and worse, and there was a prospect of a crisis in his affairs
before any decision would be had upon his suit.
"Mr. Dunbar, I wish this matter hurried to, an issue," he said to his
lawyer about six months after the suit had been commenced. "If it
is not, I shall be forced to accept Harrison's offer of twenty-five
thousand dollars. I have more than half regretted fifty times since
that I hadn't closed with it."
"Are your circumstances so pressing?" inquired Dunbar.
"Indeed they are. There are three or four suits against me. I have the
writs in my pocket. It is no use to defend them, for I have no defence
to make. The claims are just. If I do not get relief soon, what little
I have will go into the hands of the sheriff."
"That is bad," returned Dunbar, in a voice of sympathy. "But don't give
up so easily I can save your effects for you."
"How?"
"What are your goods and furniture worth?"
"A couple of thousand dollars, I suppose. My stock has got very low.
The fact is, I have thought so much about this suit against Harrison,
as to neglect my business. For these embarrassments I have only myself
to blame. I was a fool, but couldn't help it."
"You think they would bring two thousand dollars under the hammer, if
fairly sold?"
"I hardly think they would bring that under the hammer."
"A thousand or twelve hundred, then?"
"O yes; readily."
"Very well. I will lend you three hundred dollars on your note on
demand. This will make me your creditor. You can then confess judgment
on the note, and I will issue an execution and sell you out by the
sheriff before any one else can get a judgment against you."
"Sell me out by the sheriff!" exclaimed Malcolm, with a look of
surprise. "What difference will that make, pray? It is this breaking
up, root and branch, process that I wish to avoid."
"That is just what I want to do for you. I wish to save you. You don't
understand, I see, the nature of an amicable sale by the sheriff."
"No, I certainly do not. Never having had anything to do with that
gentleman, I am not familiar with all his proceedings."
"I will explain. By the laws of this State no assignments of property
for the benefit of particular creditors are legal. But by the same
laws, the creditor who can first get out his execution sweeps off
everything, provided his claim be as large as the proceeds of the
property sold. This enables a debtor to give precedence to whomsoever
he pleases by a confession of judgment. Of course there must be a sale
of the property, but then it can be conducted in such a way as to
attract very little attention. Leave the thing in my hands, and I will
see that even your next door neighbor shall not know it. Of course, I
do not mean to touch your property. My object is to secure you in its
possession."
"But there must be public advertisements and handbills?" said Malcolm.
"I know. But the advertisement can be inserted in some country paper
where no citizen will ever see it."
"But the handbills? To make it legal they must be posted."
"Granted. But the law doesn't specify the number. Two will answer."
"It certainly requires them to be put up in public places."
"Very well. The sheriff's office is a public place."
"It can be seen there."
"Not if the face be to the wall; or if some one pull it down in half a
minute after it is put up. The law requires the bills to be put up, but
doesn't say how long they shall remain up."
"A bell will have to be rung, and a bill put up on the premises."
"Yes. But the bell can be rung in the alley at the rear of your house.
Or a few strokes of it made on the opposite side of the street, and no
one be the wiser for it. As to the bill, the poster, who understands
all this, will put it up a little after daylight, when there is no
one in the street. Before he is out of sight it can be torn down by a
person employed for the purpose. For fifteen or twenty dollars all this
can be managed to a charm."
"I never heard of this before," said Malcolm, opening his eyes with
astonishment.
"It is done every day," replied the lawyer. "The men about the
sheriff's office understand it all perfectly."
"Still, if anybody buys the goods, they must be delivered."
"That doesn't follow. You can get a friend to bid in everything in my
name. He must bid very low, so that the entire amount of sales shall
not exceed three hundred dollars. After that, I will settle all with
the sheriff, and you can go on as before. The sale can take place in
the room back of your store, and even your wife up stairs need not know
it. All you have to do will be to furnish the deputy-sheriff with a
correct list of what is to be sold. You can call a whole row of shelves
a lot, to be struck off at a single bid, and he will go through all the
forms of a sale in a low voice, and the clerk and customers in your
store will be none the wiser."
"And that's the way it's done!" said Malcolm. "I have often wondered
how people who were broken up root and branch managed to retain their
furniture, for instance."
"It is by the aid of friends, through an amicable sale."
"I did not expect this act of kindness from you, Mr. Dunbar," said
Malcolm, now recollecting the deep obligation under which the lawyer
was placing him. "When it is in my power, I hope to make you feel that
I am grateful. What is done must be done, I suppose, immediately."
"Yes. For if it be not all over before judgments are obtained and
executions issued by those who are suing, some trouble may be given,
although the sale could not be prevented."
"I am ready to have the matter as speedily arranged as possible."
"Very well. If you will draw me a note on demand for three hundred
dollars, I will hand you my check for that amount. To-morrow, if you
will call round, the confession of judgment can be made. Things will go
on smoothly enough after that. Leave it all in my hands. I can manage
these underlings of the law to a nicety. In due time I will notify you
how to act."
The thing proposed by the lawyer was done. Malcolm was quietly sold out
by the sheriff, and Dunbar got legal possession of all the goods in his
store and furniture in his house.
"I think I shall be able to manage him now," he said to himself, with a
cold and heartless sneer, "should he prove troublesome. Harrison will
hear no more from him after this suit is lost. What fools some men are!"