"THE WHIP HAND"
An hour later Helen and the old man hurried out of the lodging house and
Helen led him across town to the office where Dudley Stone worked. At
first the old man peered all about, on the watch for Fenwick Grimes or his
clerk.
"They have been after me every few days to agree to leave New York. I did
not know what for, but I knew Fenwick was up to some game. He always _was_
up to some game, even when we were young fellows together.
"Now he is rich, and he might have found me better lodgings and something
to do. But after I came back from the South and was unfit to do clerical
work because of my eyes, he only threw me a dollar now and then--like
throwing a bone to a starving dog."
That explained how Helen had chanced to see the old man at Fenwick
Grimes's door on the occasion of her visit to her father's old partner.
And later, in the presence of Dudley Stone--who was almost as eager as
Helen herself--the old man related the facts that served to explain the
whole mystery surrounding the trouble that had darkened Prince Morrell's
life for so long.
Briefly, Allen Chesterton and Fenwick Grimes had grown up together in the
same town, as boys had come to New York, and had kept in touch with each
other for years. Neither had married and for years they had roomed
together.
But Chesterton was a plodding bookkeeper and would never be anything else.
Grimes was mad for money, but he was always complaining that he never had
a chance.
His chance came through Willets Starkweather, when the latter's
brother-in-law was looking for a working partner--a man right in Grimes's
line, and who was a good salesman. Grimes got into the firm on very
limited capital, yet he was a trusted member and Prince Morrell depended
on his judgment in most things.
Allen Chesterton had been brought into the firm's office to keep the books
through Grimes's influence, of course. By and by it seemed to Chesterton
that his old comrade was running pretty close to the wind. The bookkeeper
feared that _he_ might be involved in some dubious enterprise.
There was flung in Chesterton's way (perhaps _that_ was by the influence
of Grimes, too) a chance to go to New Orleans to be bookkeeper in a
shipping firm. He could get passage upon a vessel belonging to the firm.
He had this to decide between the time of leaving the office one afternoon
and early the next morning. He took the place and bundled his things
aboard, leaving a letter for Fenwick Grimes. That letter, it is needless
to say, Grimes never made public. And by the time the slow craft
Chesterton was on reached her destination, the firm of Grimes & Morrell
had gone to smash, Morrell was a fugitive, and the papers had ceased to
talk about the matter.
The true explanation of the mystery was now plain. Chesterton said that it
was not himself, but Grimes, who had been successful as an amateur actor.
Grimes had often disguised himself so well as different people that he
might have made something by the art in a "protean turn" on the vaudeville
stage.
Chesterton had known all about the thirty-three thousand dollars belonging
to Morrell & Grimes in the banks. Grimes had hinted to his friend how easy
it would be to sequestrate this money without Morrell knowing it. At
first, evidently, Grimes had wished to use the bookkeeper as a tool.
Then he improved upon his plan. He had gotten rid of Chesterton by getting
him the position at a distance. His going out of town himself had been
merely a blind. He had imitated Prince Morrell so perfectly--after forging
the checks in his partner's handwriting--that the tellers of the two banks
had thought Morrell really guilty as charged.
"So Fenwick Grimes got thirty-three thousand dollars with which to begin
business on, after the bankruptcy proceedings had freed him of all debts,"
said Dud Stone, reflectively. "Yet there must have been one other person
who knew, or suspected, his crime."
"Who could that be?" cried Helen. "Surely Mr. Chesterton is guiltless."
"Personally I would have taken the old man's statement without his
swearing to it. _That_ is the confidence I have in him. I only wished it
to be put into affidavit form that it might be presented to the courts--if
necessary."
"If necessary?" repeated Helen, faintly.
"You see, my dear girl, you now have the whip hand," said Dud. "You can
make the man--or men--who ill-used your father suffer for the crime----"
"But, is there more than Grimes? Are you _sure_?"
"I believe that there is another who _knew_. Either legally, or morally,
he is guilty. In either case he was and is a despicable man!" exclaimed
Dud, hotly.
"You mean my uncle," observed Helen, quietly. "I know you do. How do you
think he benefited by this crime?"
"I believe he had a share of the money. He held Grimes up, undoubtedly.
Grimes is the bigger criminal in a legal sense. But Starkweather
benefited, I believe, after the fact. And _he_ let your father remain in
ignorance----"
"And let poor dad pay him back the money he was supposed to have lost in
the smashing of the firm?" murmured Helen. "Do--do you think he was paid
twice--that he got money from both Grimes and father?"
"We'll prove that by Grimes," said the fledgling lawyer who, in time, was
likely to prove himself a successful one indeed.
He sent for Mr. Grimes to come to see him on important business. When the
money-lender arrived, Dud got him into a corner immediately, showed the
affidavit, and hinted that Starkweather had divulged something.
Immediately Grimes accused Helen's uncle of exactly the part in the crime
Dud had suspected him of committing. After the affair blew over and Grimes
had set up in business, Starkweather had come to him and threatened to
tell certain things which he knew, and others that he suspected, unless he
was given the money he had originally invested in the firm of Grimes &
Morrell.
"I shut his mouth. That's all he took--his rightful share; but I've got
his receipts, and I can make it look bad for him. And I _will_ make it
look bad for that old stiff-and-starched hypocrite if he lets me be driven
to the wall."
This defiance of Fenwick Grimes closed the case as far as any legal
proceedings were concerned. The matter of recovering the money from Grimes
would have to be tried in the civil courts. All the creditors of the firm
were satisfied. To get Grimes indicted for his old crime would be a
difficult matter in New York County.
"But you have the whip hand," Dud Stone told the girl from Sunset Ranch
again. "If you want satisfaction, you can spread the story broadcast by
means of the newspapers, and you will involve Starkweather in it just as
much as you will Grimes. And between you and me, Helen, I think Willets
Starkweather richly deserves just that punishment."