"MUST I give up every thing?" asked Mr. Hardy of his lawyer, with
whom he was holding a consultation as to the mode and manner of
getting clear of certain responsibilities in the shape of debt.
"Yes, every thing, or commit perjury. The oath you have taken is
very comprehensive. If you keep back as much as ten dollars, you
will swear falsely."
"Bad--bad. I have about seven thousand dollars, and I owe twenty
thousand. To divide this among my creditors, gives them but a small
sum apiece, while it strips me of every thing. Is there no way, Mr.
Dockett, by which I can retain this money, and yet not take a false
oath? You gentlemen of the bar can usually find some loop-hole in
the law out of which to help your clients. I know of several who
have gone through the debtors' mill, and yet not come forth
penniless; and some of them, I know, would not be guilty of false
swearing."
"Oh yes, the thing is done every day."
"Ah, well, how is it done?"
"The process is very simple. Take your seven thousand dollars, and
make it a present to some friend, in whom you can confide. Then you
will be worth nothing, and go before the insolvent commissioners and
swear until you are black and blue, without perjuring yourself."
"Humph! is that the way it is done?" said Mr. Hardy.
"The very way."
"But suppose the friend should decline handing it back?"
The lawyer shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "You must take care
whom you trust in an affair of this kind. At worst, however, you
would be just as well off, assuming that your friend should hold on
to what you gave him, as you would be if you abandoned all to your
creditors."
"True, if I abandon all, there is no hope of, even getting back a
dollar. It is the same as if I had thrown every thing into the sea."
"Precisely."
"While, in adopting the plan you propose, the chances for getting
back my own again are eight to ten in my favour."
"Or, you might almost say, ten to ten. No friend into whose hands
you confided the little remnant of your property would be so base as
to withhold it from you."
"I will do it," said Mr. Hardy, as he parted with the lawyer.
One day, a few weeks after this interview took place, the client of
Mr. Dockett came hurriedly into his office, and, drawing him aside,
said, as he slipped a small package into his hand, "Here is
something for you. You remember our conversation a short time ago?"
"Oh, very well."
"You understand me, Mr. Dockett?"
"Oh, perfectly! all right; when do you go before the commissioners?"
"To-morrow."
"Ah?"
"Yes--good morning. I will see you again as soon as all is over."
"Very well--good morning."
On the next day, Mr. Hardy met before the commissioners, and took a
solemn oath that he had truly and honestly given up into the hands
of his assignee every dollar of his property, for the benefit of his
creditors, and that he did not now possess any thing beyond what the
law permitted him to retain. Upon this, the insolvent commissioners
gave him a full release from the claims that were held against him,
and Mr. Hardy was able to say, as far as the law was concerned, "I
owe no man any thing."
Mr. Dockett, the lawyer, was sitting in his office on the day after
his client had shuffled off his coil of debt, his mind intent upon
some legal mystery, when the latter individual came in with a light
step and cheerful air.
"Good morning, Mr. Hardy," said the lawyer, smiling blandly.
"Good morning," returned the client.
"How are things progressing?" inquired the lawyer.
"All right," returned Hardy, rubbing his hands. "I am at last a free
man. The cursed manacle of debt has been stricken off--I feel like a
new being."
"For which I most sincerely congratulate you," returned the lawyer.
"For your kindness in so materially aiding me in the matter," said
Mr. Hardy, after a pause, "I am most truly grateful. You have been
my friend as well as my legal adviser."
"I have only done by you as I would have done by any other man,"
replied the lawyer. "You came to me for legal advice, and I gave it
freely."
"Still, beyond that, you have acted as my disinterested friend,"
said Mr. Hardy; "and I cannot express my gratitude in terms
sufficiently strong."
The lawyer bowed low, and looked just a little mistified. A slight
degree of uneasiness was felt by the client. A pause now ensued. Mr.
Hardy felt something like embarrassment. For some time he talked
around the subject uppermost in his mind, but the lawyer did not
appear to see the drift of his remarks. At last, he said--
"Now that I have every thing arranged, I will take the little
package I yesterday handed you."
There was a slight expression of surprise on the countenance of Mr.
Dockett, as he looked inquiringly into the face of his client.
"Handed to me?" he said, in a tone the most innocent imaginable.
"Yes," returned Hardy, with much earnestness. "Don't you recollect
the package containing seven thousand dollars, that I placed in your
hands to keep for me, yesterday, while I went before the
commissioners?"
The lawyer looked thoughtful, but shook his head.
"Oh, but Mr. Dockett," said Hardy, now becoming excited; "you must
remember it. Don't you recollect that I came in here yesterday,
while you were engaged with a couple of gentlemen, and took you
aside for a moment? It was then that I gave you the money."
Mr. Dockett raised his eyes to the ceiling, and mused for some time,
as if trying to recall the circumstance to which allusion was made.
He then shook his head, very deliberately, two or three times,
remarking, as he did so, "You are evidently labouring under a
serious mistake, Mr. Hardy. I have not the most remote recollection
of the incident to which you refer. So far from having received the
sum of money you mention, I do not remember having seen you for at
least a week before to-day. I am very certain you have not been in
my office within that time, unless it were when I was away. Your
memory is doubtless at fault. You must have handed the money to some
one else, and, in the excitement of the occasion, confounded me with
that individual. Were I not charitable enough to suppose this, I
should be deeply offended by what you now say."
"Mr. Dockett," returned the client, contracting his brow heavily,
"Do you take me for a simpleton?"
"Pray don't get excited, Mr. Hardy," replied the lawyer, with the
utmost coolness. "Excitement never does any good. Better collect
your thoughts, and try and remember into whose hands you really did
place your money. That I have not a dollar belonging to you, I can
positively affirm."
"Perhaps you call my seven thousand dollars your own now. I gave you
the sum, according to your own advice; but it was an understood
matter that you were to hand the money back so soon as I had
appeared before the commissioners."
"Mr. Hardy!" and the lawyer began to look angry. "Mr. Hardy, I will
permit neither you nor any other man to face me with such an
insinuation. Do you take me for a common swindler? You came and
asked if there was not some mode by which you could cheat your
creditors out of six or seven thousand dollars; and I, as in duty
bound, professionally, told you how the law might be evaded. And now
you affirm that I joined you as a party in this nefarious
transaction! This is going a little too far?"
Amazement kept the duped client dumb for some moments. When he would
have spoken, his indignation was so great that he was afraid to
trust himself to utter what was in his mind. Feeling that too much
was at stake to enter into any angry contest with the man who had
him so completely in his power, Mr. Hardy tore himself away, by a
desperate effort, in order that, alone, he might be able to think
more calmly, and devise, if possible, the means whereby the
defective memory of the lawyer might be quickened.
On the next day, he went again to the office of his legal adviser,
and was received very kindly by that individual.
"I am sure, Mr. Dockett," he said, after he was seated, speaking in
a soft, insinuating tone of voice, "that you can now remember the
little fact of which I spoke yesterday."
But Mr. Dockett shook his head, and answered, "You have made some
mistake, Mr. Hardy. No such sum of money was ever intrusted to me."
"Perhaps," said Hardy, after thinking for a few minutes, "I may have
been in error in regard to the amount of money contained in the
package. Can't you remember having received five thousand dollars
from me? Think now!"
The lawyer thought for a little while, and then shook his head.
"No, I have not the slightest recollection of having received such a
sum of money from you."
"The package may only have contained four thousand dollars," said
Mr. Hardy, driven to this desperate expedient in the hope of
inducing the lawyer to share the plunder of the creditors.
But Mr. Dockett again shook his head.
"Say, then, I gave you but three thousand dollars."
"No," was the emphatic answer.
"But I am sure you will remember having received two thousand
dollars from my hand."
"No, nor one thousand, nor one hundred," replied the lawyer
positively.
"Mr. Dockett, you are a knave!" exclaimed the client, springing to
his feet and shaking his clenched fists at the lawyer.
"And you are both a knave, and a fool," sneeringly replied Mr.
Dockett.
Hardy, maddened to desperation, uttered a threat of personal
violence, and advanced upon the lawyer.
But the latter was prepared for him, and, before the excited client
had approached three paces, there was heard a sharp click; and at
the same moment, the six dark barrels of a "revolver" became
visible. While Mr. Dockett thus coolly held his assailant at bay, he
addressed him in this wise:
"Mr. Hardy, from what you have just said, it is clear that you have
been playing a swindling game with your creditors, and stained your
soul with perjury into the bargain!--Now, if you do not leave my
office instantly, I will put your case in the hands of the Grand
Jury, at present in session, and let you take your chance for the
State prison on the charge of false swearing!"
Mr. Hardy became instantly as quiet as a lamb. For a few moments, he
looked at the lawyer in bewildered astonishment, and then, turning
away, left his office, in a state of mind more easily imagined than
described.
Subsequently, he tried, at various times and on various occasions,
to refresh the memory of Mr. Dockett on the subject of the seven
thousand dollars, but the lawyer remained entirely oblivious, and to
this day has not been able to recall a single incident attending the
alleged transfer.
Mr. Dockett has, without doubt, a shocking bad memory.