NOT FOR SALE
On the way home that day Dick even mustered up enough courage to whistle
again, something he had not thought of doing ever since this black
shadow had fallen across his path.
The mere fact that a man as astute as Mr. Winslow should agree that his
suspicion was founded on something worth looking into gave him
considerable comfort.
It was a terrible thought, but just as the teller had declared, he could
see that things must have come to a bad pass indeed with the merchant,
and that anticipating a smash in the near future he had possibly
conceived the scheme of making way with those negotiable securities in
order to defraud his creditors; when the storm had blown over he might
go to some city, dispose of the valuable papers by degrees, and in this
way have enough to live on comfortably the balance of his days.
On the way home Dick considered whether it were best to tell his mother;
and as he had always made it a habit to keep nothing of any importance
from her he determined to do so.
She had ever been his best friend and adviser in the many difficulties
that beset a boy, and more than once he had found that her wisdom far
excelled his own in bringing about a settlement of his boyish disputes.
He found her anxiously awaiting his coming, for the strain had been
great, and every minute beyond his customary time for returning was
torture to her fond heart, since, in imagination, she could see him
being possibly arrested for something that any one with half a heart
must know he would never be guilty of doing.
And so Dick told her what had passed during the day, winding up with his
conference with Mr. Winslow.
To this latter Mrs. Morrison listened with bated breath, and a look of
alarm not unmixed with horror in her gentle eyes.
She was unused to anything bordering on crime, and could hardly believe
that a man might bring himself to such a point where he would rob
himself.
"But that isn't the point, mother," said Dick, when the lady spoke of
this fact. "If he did take those securities he wasn't stealing from
himself but from his creditors; for you see they were part of his
resources, and would have to be produced in case of a failure, to help
pay off his indebtedness."
"Yes, I think I manage to grasp that part of it now, Dick, though you
financial men should be more careful to explain such things to
greenhorns. Do you suppose he will be arrested and made to produce the
missing documents, son?" she asked, with a little laugh.
"Oh! I do not think so. Mr. Winslow said we hadn't a bit of evidence
against him more than suspicion, and that is a poor thing to go on. You
thought so in my case mother, anyway. He told me to leave it to him, and
in some way he'd find a chance to learn the truth."
"What would Mr. Graylock do with the papers in case he did take them out
of the envelope that day?" she asked.
"Why, I suppose he would be apt to carry them home and hide them.
Perhaps if some one could only watch him without his knowing it, the
truth might come out. If he does go under to-morrow, as Mr. Winslow
thinks possible, he will be apt to stay around here for some time
settling up his affairs; and all the while the missing securities would
be safe in the place he has hidden them. But how can anybody get into
his house to find them? Ferd wouldn't think of asking _me_ there; and if
his father found me under his roof there would be a row at once."
"Better leave all that to Mr. Winslow, my boy. From what you tell me I
fancy he is a keen young man, and surely he will think of some way
whereby the truth may be made known. At least I hope and pray that it
may be so. If that wicked man has been guilty of this terrible thing he
deserves to suffer."
So presently they fell to talking of happier things, and the plans
spoken of on the preceding night in connection with certain needful
repairs about the cottage were again taken up and discussed.
In anticipation of the coming good fortune Mrs. Morrison was already
beginning to feel that happiness lay before them; and had it not been
for this one cloud on the horizon of Dick's young business career she
would have believed herself without a wish ungratified.
As chance would have it while they were still talking some one drove up
to the gate in a little buggy and climbed down from the seat.
"I think it must be Lawyer Cheatham," said Dick, looking beyond the
porch; "I wonder what he wants here at this time of night."
His mother laughed softly.
"I think I can give a guess, Dick. A week ago when things looked so dark
for us I went to see him about selling our little home. I really
believed that it might be necessary for us to leave Riverview and go to
the city, where I could find customers who would pay me better for my
dressmaking than here, and if necessary you could get a place, for there
seemed no chance here. I went to see him and we discussed terms. He was
very hard, and offered me much less than I thought the place ought to
bring. So I came away determined to try and hold out a little longer. I
fancy he is coming now to make me a better offer."
"Oh! he is, eh? Well, this place isn't on the market now, is it mother.
You don't want to sell it, the house father built?" said Dick,
earnestly.
"No, no, not that, only as a very last resort, and thank Heaven we do
not have to think of it now," she answered, as the dark figure shuffled
up the walk.
"Good evening, Mr. Cheatham. Walk right inside, please. We were just
sitting out here talking, Richard and I. Have a chair, won't you?" she
said, hospitably.
The lawyer was also a money-lender, and accounted a very shrewd
customer.
He was a dried-up specimen of humanity, and mumbled in talking as though
never certain how long he could hold his false upper set of teeth in
place; Dick had known him for years, but never fancied the old bachelor,
who was said to be even richer than Mr. Gibbs, though he wore shabby
clothes and drove a rig that would have shamed most men.
"Ahem! I have just dropped in to see you about the sale, Mrs. Morrison.
I offered you twelve hundred for the place, counting the mortgages, and
you held out for fourteen hundred. Now, circumstances have arisen
whereby I am enabled to raise my bid to thirteen hundred. There is about
eight hundred due on the place, which will leave you an equity of five
hundred. Shall we call it a go, madam?"
"No, sir, I have changed my mind since I saw you," replied the widow,
smiling at his eagerness; for knowing his crafty ways she felt positive
he had found a chance to dispose of the pretty cottage at a very much
greater sum, if he could only get possession of it.
"Well, though the property is hardly worth it I must accept your terms
then, and give you the full fourteen hundred, though it will leave me a
scant chance to come out even after I have made certain repairs, and put
it on the market again," he said.
She shook her head in the negative.
"You did not understand me, Mr. Cheatham when I said I had changed my
mind."
"Why, certainly, madam, every woman is given that privilege. I suppose
you have concluded to put the price up to fifteen hundred. It is a
ridiculous sum; but rather than disappoint a client who has set his
heart on securing this same house, I suppose I must submit to the
inevitable and consent to pay that exorbitant price," he went on.
Dick could stand it no longer.
He felt that since he was a man of business now, and the head of the
house, he ought to have something to say about such a transaction as
this.
"Mr. Cheatham, let me explain to you just what my mother means. This
house is not for sale," he said, in positive tones that made the old
money-lender stare at him.
"Not for sale, young man, when your mother came to me and begged me to
take it off her hands? It was only a question of price, and I have even
gone a hundred above her own figure. Surely she would not be so foolish
as to lose such a golden opportunity, which may never occur again. Not
for sale--you must be mistaken, boy."
"As she said to you, circumstances have also changed with us since she
called on you. My mother has come into some money, enough to keep her in
comfort all her life, and she does not mean to let this house, which my
father himself built, go out of her possession. You could not buy it
sir, at double the price you offer."
The lawyer and money shark jumped up from his chair as though he had
been fixed upon a spring like a jack-in-the-box.
"Madam, is what your son tells me true?" he demanded, hotly.
"Every word of it, Mr. Cheatham; I have been trying to say the same
thing but somehow could not get you to understand me. We do not intend
to leave Riverview, and the property is withdrawn from sale," she
replied.
"Then I have been a fool to come out here to-night," he growled, and
shuffled out toward the gate.
"A good riddance, and I hope he never comes here again. When he really
got it through his head that you had fallen into a fortune the old beast
looked at you as if he could eat you, mother. If he ever comes courting
around here I'll be tempted to do something desperate, the old
skinflint. He's the worst-hated man in all Riverview, even if he is the
richest," declared Dick, as he heard the vehicle moving down the road
with sundry creakings and groanings, for they said Hezekiah Cheatham was
too stingy to buy axle grease.
"Richard, don't speak of such a thing again, even in fun. Like our
little cottage home I am not in the market. Now let us talk again of
things more pleasant than Mr. Cheatham, or the missing securities. When
we put that new wing on, you shall have a den of your own; and I expect
to enjoy the comfort of an up-to-date bathroom, something I have always
wanted. But not a penny shall we spend until that delightful little
inheritance is safely in our hands. What a Paradise we can make of our
dear home in time, eh, Dick?"
And so they talked on as the time flew, picturing happy scenes, and more
of comfort than they had ever known; really it seemed to Dick that the
shadow he had felt hovering over his devoted head did not appear so
formidable after all, with a mother's love to take away its bitter
sting.