Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 255, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1917 — Page 2

The Protector of Finance

Tales of Resilius Marvel, Guardian of Bank Treasure Epfr .U— ~~ 22 _5 L,

Resilius marvel sat at his desk with six photographs spread out before him, when, following a telephone call from him. I had gone over to the office of the United Bankers’ Protective association. Three were pictures of women who contrasted somewhat as to age and facial expression. He had his hands thrust deep in his pockets as he crowded far back in his tilting swivel chair, a favorite pose when he was either yery much engrossed in considering a subject or very comfortable. -* When the great man had a case fully in grasp with the end in sight he rarely referred to it When, however, he was perturbed or perplexed, it seemed to be a vent, a relief to talk it over with me. Not that I was of much assistance to him. In fact I felt that I was simply r. buffer. Sometimes there was an assimilation and I would venture suggestions. Nine out of ten of these were vacuous and full of flaws. Sometimes the tenth from the mental scrap heap would possess the germ of an idea. If so, he rolled it through his own shrewd thinking-processes, and away he went with it, turning out something brilliant and effective from the very raw original material, indeed. “I had quite an interesting visitor yesterday,” observed my friend, and he tossed a card across the table. Know him?”

I read the name, “Howard Sutherland,” and nodded in assent, adding verbally: “He is the owner of Sutherland & Ron, very good bankers and very sound financially. “Were,” disputed? Marvel pointedly. “This is under the rose, of course,” related my friend.“l can see no reason why their credit should be restricted from what I have discovered, or rather what has been revealed to —me. —l do not think the case will be a serious one, but there is certainly some need of tinkering. Mr. Sutherland has asked me to take up the affair. It is interesting and unique, for —the reason that a blight has come over the Sutherland family and business life, and he has not the least idea wherefore. That first photo is of himself." “Yes, a very good picture,” I remarked. “The second is his son, Dunbar Sutherland.” “I recognized him also.” “The third is a faithful adherent of the family. He saved the life of the son in a border tussle with Indians five years ago Dunbar Sutherland took him up out of gratitude, educated him, gave him a position in the bank, and from what I learn he is a veritable watch dog of the Sutherland interests. His name is Chespa.”

He was straight as an arrow. The refinements of civilization had toned down the primal ferocity of eyes and lips. Still, in his glance was the dear steadiness of a man not to be trifled with. “A dangerous person to arouse,” was the comment I made, and Marvel nodded in mute agreement with the conviction. “The first lady, the older of the three,” he went on, “is Mrs. Howard Sutherland. The young lady with the sweet eyes and the unmistakable tinge of the haut ton in pose and face, is Miss Gladys Vernon, a debutante of last season. The last of the group is Nina Tricortin, who w’as the maid of Mrs. Howard Sutherland and the fiance of Chespa. 1 "Up to a month since,” continued Marvel, “that group of six seemingly represented ideal social conditions. Two weeks ago Miss Vernon was sent with a relative to Europe, after she had written a brief cold note to hey former lover breaking their engagement peremptorily. One week later Mrs. Howard Sutherland left the house secretly and telegraphed from New York to her husband that all was over between them. She made no further explanations except to state that he would later hear from the lawyer of her brother in Scotland. The amazed husband and son knew not which way to turn for counsel or enlightenment. The domestic complication was lightened and some kind of an establishment maintained through Chespa suddenly 'marrying the girl, Nina. In a tyirta of doubt and distress, closely guarding from public knowledge the trouble that has come upon them, the Sutherlands have waited, hoping for some development that would cast light upon the situation. It has not come. The Vernon family refuse to discuss the broken engagement with Dunbar Sutherland, no further word has been received from Mrs. Howard Sutherland. The only bright natural spot in the ensemble is the newlymade bride, volatile, lightsome as ever and apparently devoted to the tawnyskinned husband she has so strangely selected as a life partner.” “And the Dank end of the tangle—of course there ipust be one to fit the application for your services,” I marked“There again one puzzling strain or blight nnd mystery appears,” replied Marvel. “Strong financially as the Sutherlands have been, etact and systematic as their transactions have been carried on, some malign influence has

By WELDON J. COBB

THE HIDDEN HAND Copyright, W. G. Chipman ■

been at work to destroy the integrity of their business. The bank has been raided —once, twice, thrice. A remarkable series of attacks upon its standing have shown so much plan and persistency -that Howard Sutherland passes his hours of distress fearing that it is only a question of time when the final move or fate, or a powerful relentless enemy, will precipitate an ultimate catastrophe of ruinl There have been three events of portentous significance. “First—the Waidner fraud: A man giving that name came into the bank three weeks ago wishing to open an account He selected the busy hour. He had his deposit slip made out for 54,000. This comprised three checks aggregating $2,000, and he exhibited $2,000 in currency. At the Sutherland institution the slips do not itemize such details as checks, drafts, currency, but one aggregate is given. Young Sutherland O. K.’d the account, after verifying the checks and counting the bank notes, and directed this Waidner to the receiving teller. On his way to the latter, Waidner extracted $1,900 from the currency and substituted a check for that amount. He had casually mentioned to young Sutherland that he mHght want to draw on the deposit, Itnd the latter naturally noted on the slip the cash limit of $2,000, the checks to go out for collection. The next morning a check was presented for SI,BOO, paid, and the bank was out for that amount, for the deposlted

checks were worthless.” “Not new, but not often tried,” I observed. —_____ —________ “Second,” proceeded Marvel with his narrative, “the bond sub sti tut io n. Th is was where a man came into the bank wishing to sell SIO,OOO worth of bonds. They were non-registered, but of the highest grade. He offered a fair discount, and Howard Sutherland knew they were likely to go up on a rising market. The arrangements were settled and the purchase price paid in currency. The banker placed the bonds in a box-envelope, noting the numbers and denominations on the outside. Just then there was ascream outside of the room and Sutherland hastened to the door of his office to trace the commotion. A woman had fainted, but to quickly, recover. The envelope was handed over to the cashier, placed in the vault, removed for sale two days later and found to contain some worthless mining stock. The fainting scheme had been put up to distract attention, while the broker changed the securities behind the back of the unsuspecting banker.” “These incidents might come up at any bank in the course of its history,” I said.

“True,” agreed Marvel; “or because they are a new house Sutherland & Son might have been selected as fresh. victims by clever crooks. That phase, however, fades into nothingness when we come to consider. Incident three: SI,BOO, $12,000, and now $40,000. You see the scale is an ascending one.” ‘The s4o,ooo^—” I began. “Covers something so new, so unusual, so inexplicable that it is fairly staggering. A man, a Mexican, came to the bank sixty days since and deposited $2,000. He named himself Miguel Cristol, and claimed to be a successful miner who had made his pile and had come north to see a little of life. When he made his deposit he produced a small metal box with four half keys fitting intricate locks. His interview was with Dunbar Sutherland. Opening the box, he had its contents verified. It contained $25,000 in treasury notes. He locked the box, sealed it, gave two half keys to young Sutherland and asked him to keep the box in a safe place subject to call, Sutherland & Son have no safety deposit vaults, but the box was placed under special lock and key in the treasure safe. He drew out his regular account intermittently. Three days ago he appeared, saying he had a demand for all his money, as he was about to Invest it in the purchase of a hotel at Los Angeles. The box was brought from the vault A clerk was called in to witness the safe return of the contents to its owner. The seals were removed, the keys fitted, the box opened.” ? ■ My friend paused impressively. Then he reached over towards his desk and took out a metal box. It answered to the description of the one he had referred to and I knew it must be the same.

“When they opened it,” announced Resilius Marvel —“this.” He moved the box about to Indicate that it was empty thenas empty now. He drew his finger across the inner surface of the —box cover. A slight smudge adhered to his finger tips, nothing more. ~ “What?” I inquired, at sea. “Not a trace of the original enclosure was discoverable except a thin sooty gathering on the box cover, as you see. The Mexican blew up dreadfully. His money! his money I he demanded. The Sutherlands were dumfounded, distressed. No one could have rifled the box without the joint , key parts. The seals had been found intact ‘Spontaneous combustion* or what not, the money had disappeared and the trustee must make it good. Senor Cristol gave the* Sutherlands a

THE fevENINGREPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

week to decide on a settlement or a "But—” I began, and paused there summarily. No sane man would devise a scheme to destroy money on the- risk—ut—-lta~l value recovery and where the act would bring no gain. Marvel did not give me any hint that might have enlightened me, and before the interview had led to further developments there was an interruption. ““_

It was the original of the first photograph Marvel had shown me who now burst unceremoniously into the room —Howard Sutherland. His face was flushed and heated, his eyes fired with the wildest excitement. He fell rather than sank into a chair, fairly collapsing under some terrific mental strain. Catching his side with his hand, panting painfully, he almost sobbed out: “Another blow —the worst yet! We shall have to close the doors of the bank.” “Take time, we are friends,” spoke Marvel reassuringly, with a motion of the hand embracing myself. “Tell your story—we will do the thinking for you.” There was something pitiful in the picture presented of a proud, strong man bent down by a weight of trouble, dread and, aboye all, mystery. It was this latter element that brought the distress. To me it was all incoherent, the motive the purpose obscured, _and I could tell from the manner of Marvel that he did not yet see the light According to the banker, when the cashier had gone to the document chest that morning he had found missing a bundle of notes representing one-half the accommodation paper of the bank. It would be difficult for any person to negotiate the notes without our being called up first, as the impress of receipt by the bank is stamped upon them.”“Then why selected?” I could not help break in. Marvel crisply. “This last blow at the bank is one of a series made by the hand of. an enemy. There can be no other hypothesis upon which to proceed, and I now know my ground.” “I have not one in the world!” dedared the banker, and I could hot doubt his clear frank eye and open face. “Some one is trying to ruin you,” declared Marvel. “Play for delay in the settlement of the claim for that

WHO ARE YOU? SHE DEMANDED, HER EYES DILATING NOT WITH ALARM BUT HEIGHTENING ’ DISPLEASURE

SLO,OOO. How far will the abstraction of these last notes hamper you?” - “They included the paper of some, borrowers we had planned to drop, and if aware that the notes were lost these might repudiate their loans,” explained the banker. “Outside of that the break on our records, our system, together with our repeated losses, cripple us considerably.” “I will have some definite word for you within seventy-two hours, Mr. Sutherland,” promised Resilius Marvel, and I knew he would redeem the pledge. I saw nothing further of him until the following afternoon, when he came into the bank. “Arrange to join me about dusk,” said Marvel. “I have learned a great deal, but it is only a glimmering. The potent force behind a conspiracy, or a vendetta; —” r “A vendetta!" I repeated blankly. “Call it by what term you choose, but the culmination will show a hidden hand impelled by some other motive than that of gain. Sutherland, Jr.; and this Chespa have each a key to the bank. Either may enter it after closing hours at his option. The only one who entered it—about ten o’clock last evening—was Chespa. The watch--man- says he went to the counting room, got an umbrella from under the counter and went away.” —“You distrust this Chespa?” “In no sense, and- for a, very goedreason. I'had a casual talk with him. He avers that he ate something that disagreed with him last evening, that he went up to his room. Jay down on the bed with his clothe® on, and slumbered profoundly until daybreak. A servant at .the house verified that he had neither left nor re-entered the house since dinner. From the same source I learned that his wife, this volatile butterfly, Nina, was absent from nine until eleven.”

“Then she —” “Will be the object of some attention on my part this evening. I want you to keep the bank in view from eight until about eleven, and report to me first thing in the morning.” I was glad I .had not been born a patrolman, after an hour of nosy service in following the instructions of Resilius Marvel that evening. By the end of an hour I was tired of circling the block in which the bank was located. Finally, when the watchman gave up his smoke and. his-seat on the steps and w’ent inside,! sllppectlnto the shadow of a space aligning the adjoining building.The bank was located In a district Justoutlying the business section, and somewhat off the main thoroughfare. Not many people passed except neighborhood residents. None, called for especial attention, interest or suspicion until a woman passed by, deeply veiled. As she reached the entrance to the bank she slightly paused. She drifted out of view. It was to reappear again, however, in about fifteen minutes. Now it was and she had chosen a time when the street was fairly deserted. She looked ahead and back of her searchingly, hurried forward, knelt on tfie second step and threw up her veil. The fight from the corner arc light glinted brilliantly across her. I stood fairly fascinated. I had never been impressed so startlingly. It was like some effective stage picture. Her face had a smooth creole tinge, her eyes were 1 i gems she wore at her throat. In her ears were two diamonds that must have cost a small fortune. Her dress was of rich dark velvet. A plain black silk ribbon suspended at her breast a simple gold cross. The woman lifted the cross to her) lips, kissed It reverently and closed her eyes as if in prayer. And then — —She arose from her knees. Suddenly the pose of a devotee changed to that of a fury. I heard her lips hiss, her teeth grit, her breath came in hard, broken gasps, and a gush of words came from her lips in a viperish hiss that cut the still night air like a steel lash. .—— — I am a fair French scholar, and once I had acquired a smattering of Spanish. I knew enough of the latter language to partially interpret those dreadful words that fell from the woman’s lips. Where her perfect face had appeared beautiful, it now assumed a demoniac expression. An

anathema, crushing, blighting, came from her lips in a—withering blast. Alive and dead, in health and sickness, might heaven curse and destroy the Sutherland family, root and branch! A motorcycle turned the corner with its disturbing chug, a pedestrian came into view. The woman dropped her veil and rapidly proceeded down the street. I was fairly stunned, cowed, bewildered, but I started from my covert, dimly tracing in this uncanny visitation a thread in the dust that might lead to the solving of the mystery that appertained to the fortunes of the Sutherlands. I came around the corner of the next street half a minute after—fthe woman had turned. Too date! She had Sprung into a taxicab and flashed out'Of sight and I had no means of so 1 lowin g her. That was all that night. That was all I had to report to Resilius Marvel in the morning. He listened silently, gravely. Then he gave me further instructions. What he had accomplished he did not say, but when he named the volatile Nina, the newly made bride of Chespa, I knew where the main interest was centered. “The woman knows me,” observed my friend. “It is necessary, very necessary to keep track of her through the day. We must descend for the oceasion to old-fashioned methods a pair of side whiskers and some dark glasses will afford you a respectable disguise. I trust you not 'to lose sight of her when she leaves the Sutherland home until she returns." I was proud of my commission. While I believed it represented a mistaken confidence in my ability, I was flattered. When I went to the office of my friend at eleven o'clock that morning, the qikick glance of. Marvel told me that he saw In his shrewd

way that I had found out something of importance and was eager to impart it “You followed Mrs. Nina —” he spoke first. “For an hour. She went—” “To the home of the woman you saw at the bank last night.” It was not exactly pleasant to be anticipated, but I immediately reminded myself that I was dealing with a man who reasoned out a case at times distinctly ahead of its actual progress, so I assented meekly. I had seen the woman Nina leave the Sutherland place and found her an easy shadow. She toox a fellow passenger for about a mile. When she alighted I was after her at a distance. Z She walked along leisurely for about two blocks and entered a quiet street given over mainly to apartment houses of the better class. Opposite one of these she looked up at its second story. A woman, the lady of the diamonds and the curses, was seated at the window. What seemed to be a curly-headed child sat in a low chair beside her: In the broad window frame rested a doll, some toys and a heap of wooden building blocks. Some of these had been piled up as if casually to amuse the child. The letters and numbers they bore were about two inches in length. Chespa’s wife had halted and was glancing fixedly at the blocks, while the woman at the window made no conscious movement of encouragement or recognition. —— ——- The top of the pyramid of blocks was 2, then 12, a 5, and then “L-A-N-G,” and as Nina walked on I knew she had received a message. “At 2 o’clock, 12 Fifth Ave., Lang.” And I interpreted this to mean that they would meet at noon at 12 Fifth avenue, which I also knew to be a ladies’ hairdressing parlor conducted by one Lang. ' I saw that Marvel thought and soon he expressed himself to that effect. He Went over to a cabinet and I noted that he placed a small case containing some metal utilities in his pocket. Then he consultedhis watch. “You are not going to the meeting place of the two women, then?” I interrogated naturally, as just about the noon hour we left the office of the United Bankers’ Protective association, but headed away from the direction Indicated “I am bound for a better quarry," replied Marvel, and L did not question his expert judgment when we reached the apartment house where I had seen the woman of diamonds and curses two hours before. My friend entered the building, located the apartment, and proceeded to open a door with the swiftness and dexterity of a professional house-, breaker. He pushed me across the threshold and into a chair and then closed the door after resetting the lock. “Sit there,” he directed, “and watch and listen, for outsiders." My first glance was towards the front window. The pyramid of building block construction lay in disorderly ruins on the rug. In the low chair sat, not a child as I had thought from a street view, but an immense doll with golden ringlets which the woman of mystery had feigned to amuse, and then I knew we had to deal with a clever woman.

The place was plainly but richly j furnished. * The walls held but one picture. This was a well executed oil painting of a woman of middle age. I "could trace a resemblance to the woman who had visited the bank. It must be the portrait of her mother, I decided. Then I concluded that this mother was dead, for a heavy piece of crepe was looped over one end of the picture. Marvel was busy all about the apartment. That utility case of his seemed to furnish devices which gave him ready entrance to a locked writing desk and chiffonier. I could trace growing satisfaction and enlightenment in his strong face as he pocketed a package of documents, as he read and reread letters ; and cards, and at the end of half an hour he sank easily to a chair facing the door,, and glanced at his watch with the air'of a man ahead of time with his work, and impatiently awaiting official release from service. A key clicked in the lock of the door. Resllius Marvel stepped forward and placed his hand on the inside knob. He retreated as the door came open. As a figure stepped over the threshhold he closed the door quickly, set his back against it and faced the astonished woman of mystery. “Who are ypu?” she demanded, her eyes dilating not with alarm but heightening displeasure; 7 “My card.’’ The woman read the name with one sweep of her matchless eyes. The color faded in her cheeks. She had heard of Resllius Marvel, that was manifest. Tlersfiapely hand trembled slightly. Then she set that tragic face of hers steady as steel. “Your business here?” she demand“To ask you to retifrn that package of accommodation note? to Sutherland & Son, from whomour accomplice stole them,” Marvel incisively informed her, and he tendered the documents I had seen him secure from the writing desk. “Isora Giglla, I Judge, is your have it appear Inpublic print, you will assist "me in retracing the false steps you have taken and inform me what inspired them." "Give me five minutes,” said the woman, simply. "Ten, if you like, but consider the net drawn,” replied Marvel. The woman drew a chair in the center of the room. Directly facing the shrouded portrait, she fixed her eyes upon It, her hands crossed in her lap, her soul in commotion. Sadness, an-

I guish, grief, ran the gamut across those classic features. Then they hardened to some desperate decision. She arose. “You whom I have heard of," she said slowly, coldly to Marvel, “I will tell you that I have a million to carry out my purposes; that I hesitated at no peril of the taint of criminality to mature my fixed, just plans. I am responsible for all that has been done. I have directed, ' have paid for the service exacted ( You step in. Very well. Then hearken! I abandon slow torture and ruin for Howard Sutherland, but—l shall kill him!” Marvel had penciled something on a card while the woman spoke. It directed me to go for the banker at once. As I returned with him and we entered the room Isora Giglla sprang to.her feet. I caught the cold glitter of an unsheathed stilleto. The ready hand of Marvel had disarmed her, but she stood with clenched fists, her eyes emanating fire as she viewed Howard Sutherland. “Look!” she hissed at him, pointing to the shrouded portrait “Dare you stand there and look upon my mother, the woman you lured from the side of my heartbroken father and left to die in a wretched M ez ican hovel!" "4 do not understand,” spoke the banker in a dazed, bewildered way. But, as the woman raved on, as she told of the man who, claiming to be a banker from New* Orleans, haffflashed into the socletx-ef lrgr home town in Mexico, to borrow money from new friends, to sell to innocent Investors securities in a fraudulent railroad -scheme, the light suddenly broke over the mind of the banker. A man had impersonated him, he now recalled, using his name. Such was the fact, a man now In" prison in Texas serving a long term sentence, his name Archibald Dover, slowly dying, he had heard, of consumption. With the magic skill of an expert unraveler of mysteries, Resilius Marvel soon had woven a fabric of clarity and fact from the disordered threads of the strange case hehadjirdughttd" a focus. _ — —

Alter her father had died, Isora Giglia, left a large fortune, had started out with but one motive in life —a vengence, vendetta against the man who had lured her mother to a sorrowful death. Now that the- truth came out the instinct of justice caused her to reveal the intricate workings of her plots. She had hired emissaries to assist her in her plans to ruin the Sutherlands financially. Nina had been her ally—Nina who, drugging Chespa, had donned hW ' clothes and had stolen the notes from the bank. Nina who, through forged letters, had co-operated in estranging Mrs. Sutherland and Miss Vernon from father and son. Recompense she was ready to make —willing, insistent. Then —to flit to the prison where the real object of her vengence was, and to gloat over his sufferings while he lay dying inch by inch! It was at the Sutherland home that the case was gone over in detail that evening. There were present the banker, his son, Chespa, Marvel and myself, I noted a dusky horror gather over the face of the half-breed as it was revealed to him that he had been made the unsuspecting victim of the perfidy of the woman he had trusted.

Then the emotion aroused by the high sense of honor and fidelity instilled into him when a child, gave way to a dull, sullen expression. I turned away as I read a lurking something I could not really analyze in his frowning face. "Watch that man—call him back!” ordered Resillus Marvel, as Chespa left the room and we heard him scale the upper staircase like a deer hound. We were too late. A door jarred above us. Then a long, curdling shriek rang out. The door of the anteroom to the apartment of the newly wedded pair was ajar, the casa Where Chespa had kept his Indian relics was open. He had leaped from a window and disappeared after one word with* the woman who had deceived him —going back, back to the old life where truth and loyalty at least were held in honor. In the center of the next room lay a writhing form—a meet victim of savage justice. r It was Nina, and her hands were clasped above her bleeding Beau, ull(l uesiutj IltJi a» Ova ir ing knife.

The First Submarine.

The first submarine boat of which history makes any record was built by 87 Dutchman named van Drlebel, in 1640. The boat was built in Erigland with money said to have been advanced by King James L According to reports, the vessel had a. unique ballasting system. There was a number of goatskin bags placed under the deck between two large planks. These bags, when -filled with water, caused the vessel to sink. To cause it to rise again the bags were pressed together with a windlass arrangement, forcing the water out, and thus giving-the boat reserve buoyancy.—The Engineer.

Doomsday Book.

The Doomsday book was a valuation survey of England made by William the Conqueror. It was begun in 1085 and completed two years later. The book records the owners of land, the nature of its cultivation, the number of its inhabitants and their respective classes —whether freemen, villeins jor. serfs. The compilation of the book made taxation on a sound baste possible, besides being a census roll and a record of property valuations. The survey Was called the Doomsday Book because in the eyes of the people it was like the great reckoning of doetpsday. ■ .. ■ . '■ ■