A BIT OF RETALIATION.
AFTER the sheriff's sale had taken place, Malcolm tried to fix his mind
more intently on his business, but he found this almost impossible. The
argument in his suit against Harrison was to come on at the next term,
only two months off, and his anxiety about the result kept his thoughts
in such a continued state of excitement, that he injured rather than
benefited his business by whatever was done to advance it.
One day he called upon Dunbar, to ask how the matter was progressing.
He found the lawyer looking very serious.
"How do things look now?" he asked.
"Bad, I am sorry to say."
Malcolm turned pale.
"What is the matter?" he asked, anxiously, "The defence has filed a
demurrer to our bill."
"A what?"
"Has taken exception to a trifling informality, upon which we may be
thrown out of court. It is the merest trifle in the world; but it is a
lawyer's business to make a mountain out of a molehill, and Harrison's
counsel is good at that work."
"And what then?"
"It is impossible to say what then."
"Can we not begin again with an amended bill?"
"Not unless all the costs that have accrued be paid; and they will be
heavy."
"How much?"
"It is impossible now to tell. I shall immediately prepare an answer
to this demurrer, and have it argued at the earliest possible day. I
have strong hopes of satisfying the court that it is a very unimportant
informality, in no way affecting the main question, and thus secure a
hearing on the bill itself."
"And if successful in this, what is your opinion now as to the result
on the main question."
"Not quite so favorable as it was," replied Dunbar, with some gravity.
"The defendant has some strong points to urge, and will bring forward
proofs to substantiate his title that we had no idea were in existence."
"Indeed!" Malcolm's face had a look of blank astonishment.
"I am sorry to find that it is so. They are working hard to defeat us,
and will leave no stone unturned. Harrison, you know, has all the money
on his side, and money is powerful."
Poor Malcolm went home feeling most wretched. Up to this point, all his
expectations had been of the most sanguine character. Now his hopes
were dashed to the earth, and he saw not only the golden harvest he had
expected to reap left, in all probability, for the sickle of another,
but his own unfruitful field in danger of passing out of his possession.
"Fool that I was!" he muttered to himself, as he walked home from the
lawyer's office. "I should have taken Harrison's offer in spite of
Dunbar."
"Why not take it as it is?" said his wife to him, after he had
mentioned to her the new aspect assumed by the case, and expressed
again his regret at not having compromised when it was in his power.
"Sure enough! I will see Harrison this very hour. He offered
twenty-five thousand dollars. Ten will have to go to Dunbar, I suppose;
but that will leave us fifteen thousand dollars, and upon this we can
make a fair start, and get on very well. Yes I will see him at once."
"Do. It is your best course. I have no faith in these lawyers. When
a man once goes into their hands, they snap their fingers at his
judgment."
"True enough. Yes, I will see Harrison and take his offer."
Old Mr. Harrison was sitting in his counting room, looking over a
newspaper, and feeling in a pleasant state of mind, when his relative,
who had commenced a suit in the hope of dispossessing him of his
property, entered. The brow of Harrison contracted the moment he saw
him. Malcolm felt embarrassed, but entered at once upon the business of
his visit.
"I have concluded," he said, "to accept your offer to compromise this
suit."
"The deuce you have!" returned Harrison with a sneer.
"You made the offer some months ago, and I declined under advice of
counsel, although my own wish was to accept it. Now, I have determined
to act upon the dictate of my own judgment, and without consulting him."
"You are too late, my friend," replied Harrison. "Your case isn't worth
that!" snapping his fingers. "As far as right is concerned, you have no
more claim upon my property than I have upon that of John Jacob Astor.
To save trouble and vexation, I was willing to buy you off at your own
price; but you refused to take your own stipulation, and now I mean to
stand the issue. I suppose you are aware of the beautiful position in
which your lawyer has placed your suit before the court?"
"I am aware that your lawyer has taken exception to the terms of the
bill; but I am not at all sure that the court will attach any weight to
these exceptions. But, even if our bill is thrown out, it is an easy
matter to amend it, and begin again."
"Not so easy as you may imagine. I happen to know all about that. I
rather think, after we settle you on the demurrer, that we shall hear
no more about your claim."
"Then you will not compromise?"
"No, not for half the sum you name."
"Good morning," said Malcolm, turning quickly away.
"Good morning," and Harrison lifted his newspaper, and resumed its
perusal.
In due time the argument on the demurrer took place, and the court
decided against the bill as informal. Malcolm was present during the
contest, and could not help being struck with the weakness of his own
counsel's position and arguments, and the tact, force, and ingenuity of
the defence. He saw, before the matter was submitted to the court, that
he would have but little chance; and he was not deceived.
After the decision had been made, he called to see Dunbar, in no very
happy frame of mind.
"You must begin again," he said, peremptorily. "They never would have
stopped at a demurrer, if they hadn't been afraid to try the case on
its own merits."
"Are you prepared to settle the costs?" asked the lawyer, coolly.
"Because there is no beginning de novo until that is done."
"How much are they?"
"Somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen hundred dollars."
"Impossible!"
"It is too true. The defence has done everything in its power to
accumulate costs, and they are heavy. Under the most rigid taxation,
they could not be reduced a hundred dollars."
"Fifteen hundred dollars!" Malcolm's face was pale, and his lips
trembled. "Then all is, indeed, hopeless! Mr. Dunbar!" he resumed, with
some energy, after a brief pause, "in simple justice you ought to pay
these costs, and resume the prosecution on an amended bill."
"Ah! And why so?" There was something insulting in the attorney's
manner, which aroused the feelings of his client.
"You are to blame for losing the suit, and, in common justice, should
make good what your ignorance or neglect has lost."
"Ignorance or neglect!" exclaimed Dunbar, his face instantly suffused.
"Do you know whom you are addressing?"
"I think I ought to know by this time," returned Malcolm, who was fast
losing control of himself. "I am talking to a lawyer who has lost me an
important suit, through a flaw in his bill, of which the merest legal
tyro would be ashamed."
"You will repent this," said Dunbar, setting his teeth closely
together. "I never pass by an insult from friend or foe."
"I can never repent knowing you more bitterly than I now do."
"You are mistaken," coolly replied Dunbar, who had regained his
self-possession. "You will repent it far more bitterly."
There was something so full of meaning in the way this was uttered,
that Malcolm was startled by it. At that moment he remembered that all
he had in the world could be swept from his possession in a moment by
the lawyer, whose property, by virtue of a sheriff's sale, it really
was. Conscious, at the same time, of the folly of provoking a man who
had him so fully in his power, he withheld the insulting retort that
was on his lips, and turning away abruptly, left the office.
Malcolm was sitting in his store on the next day, brooding over his
unhappy condition when a sheriff's officer came in, and informed him
that Dunbar had ordered a sale of everything in a week, and that
the store must be immediately closed, and the key delivered into
the officer's hands. Remonstrance was of no avail. The order was
imperative, and the officer executed a portion of it by closing the
windows and doors with his own hands. As the family could not leave the
premises forthwith, a watchman was stationed in the store and dwelling
to see that nothing was removed.
For a few hours, Malcolm was completely paralysed. He saw himself
hopelessly ruined, and his family reduced in a single moment to want.
After the first shock had subsided, his mind again became active, and
indignation at the conduct of the lawyer set him to thinking whether
it were not in his power to circumvent him. Not being able to hit upon
any plan, for Dunbar was holding him as with the grip of a bear, he
determined to consult a lawyer, muttering to himself as he came to this
conclusion—
"Fight dog with dog! It's the only way." So with a fee of five dollars
in hand he went to a lawyer and stated his case.
"He's got you in his power, certainly," the lawyer said; "but as
the sale will not take place for a week, you might have some things
removed. There would be no injustice in this, for his claim was only
three hundred dollars, and your goods, you say, are worth at least
fifteen hundred, all of which are legally his."
"But he has a sheriff's watchman on the premises."
"Indeed! That is bad. Still, the thing can be managed, though it must
be done adroitly. What kind of a man is the watchman?"
"A good-natured Irishman, who can never get done expressing his
sympathy for me."
"He's short and stout, and fifty years old, at least?"
"Yes."
"I know him very well. There will be no great difficulty in managing
him. He goes home to his dinner, I suppose, about twelve o'clock."
"Yes, every day, and is gone an hour."
"Very well. At eleven o'clock to-morrow do you ask him to go out with
you and get something to drink. He will go. Manage to keep him at the
tavern until after twelve o'clock, and then he will go home for his
dinner instead of going back to your house. That, you see, will give
you two hours. Previous to this, you must arrange with a friend to come
with a furniture wagon or two, while you are treating the watchman, and
remove some of your most valuable things to where Dunbar will never
find them. This can be done every day, until little remains behind of
any value. Of course you will take care to diminish the show of goods
as little as possible, so as to give the watchman an excuse for not
seeing what is going on."
"You don't mean to say that he will understand the game we are
playing?" said Malcolm.
"Certainly I do. A sheriff's watchman is no fool, whatever he may seem
to be. Of course you will put a five or a ten dollar bill into his hand
before you retire with your family, and leave him in full possession,
saying to him that it is but a just remuneration for the consideration
he has had in making his presence so little offensive to yourself and
family, when it might have been far otherwise."
"And you really think all this can be done?" said Malcolm, scarcely
crediting the lawyer's affirmation.
"Certainly it can, if you choose to carry it through."
"Choose!" ejaculated Malcolm. "I think I will choose. The cursed
villain! I would go through fire and water to circumvent him. He knew
he was about losing my case, and his fee into the bargain, and he
thought he would get something out of me for his trouble."
"You do just as I recommend, and you can save nearly all your goods and
furniture."
"I will follow your advice to the letter," replied Malcolm, as he shook
the lawyer's hand, and hurriedly left his office.
"Another trick of the profession," he said, to himself as he walked
homeward. "Nothing like misfortune to make a man acquainted with the
subtleties of law, and the rascalities practised in its execution."
When Dunbar came to sell the goods and furniture of Malcolm, he
realized, after paying all fees and expenses, one hundred and
sixty-five dollars! When he demanded this sum from the sheriff, that
officer showed him a rule of the court in favor of Malcolm's landlord
for one hundred and fifty dollars, amount of rent due. So the lawyer
got fifteen dollars for his three hundred!