The Missing Bank Manager STORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 137, 31 August 1927, Page 4

The Missing Bank Manager STORY

By

“All I know is that I handed that casket to Mr. Horbury in his own din-ing-room one evening some weeks ago,” he said. “That’s certain! So I naturally expected to find it—here.” “And it is not here —that is equally certain,” observed Gabriel. “What is also certain is that our manager—trusted in more than he should have been! —is missing, and many of our valuable securities with him. Therefore ” He spread his hands again with an expressive gesture and once more bent over his papers. Once more there was silence. Then the Earl started—as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. “I say!” he exclaimed. “jDon’t you think Horbury may have put those jewels away in his own house?” Joseph Chestermarke smiled a little derisively. “A hundred thousand pounds worth!” he said softly. “Not very likely! ” “But he may have a safe there,” urged the Earl. “X- am not familiar with Horbury’s domestic arrangements,” said Gabriel. “I have not been in his house for some years. But, as we are desirous of giving your lordship what assistance sre can, we will go into the house and see if there is anything of the sort. Just tell the housekeeper we are coming in, Neale.”

The Earl nodded to Mrs. Carswell as she received him and the two partners in the adjacent hall. “This lady will remember my calling on Mr. Horbury one evening a few weeks ago,” he said. “Certainly!” assented Mrs. Carswell, readily enough. “I remember your lordship calling on Mr. Horbury very well. One night after dinner—your lordship was here an hour or so.” Gabriel Chestermarke opened the door of the dining-room, an oldfashioned apartment which looked out on a garden and orchard at the rear of the house. “Mrs. Carswell,” he said as they all went in, “has Mr. Horbury a safe in this room—or in any other room? You know what I mean.” But the housekeeper shook her head. There was no safe in the house. There was a plate chest--—there it was, standing in a recess by the sideboard. “Open that, at any rate,” commanded Gabriel. “It’s about as unlikely as anything could be, but we’ll leave nothing undone.” There was nothing in the plate chest but what Gabriel expected to find there. He turned again to the housekeeper.

”3s there anything in this house—cupboard, chest, trunk, anything—in which Mr. Horbury kept valuables?” he asked. “Any place in which he was in the habit of locking up papers, for instance?”

Mrs. Carswell again shook her head. No; she knew of no such place or receptacle. There was Mr. Horbury’s desk, but she believed all its drawers were open. Her belief proved to be correct; Gabriel himself opened drawer after drawer and revealed nothing of consequence. He turned to the Earl with another expressive spreading out of his hands.

“I don’t see what more we can do to assist your lordship,” he said. “I don’t know what more can be done.” “The question is, so it seems to me, what is to be done?” replied the Earl, whose face had been gradually growing graver. “What, for instance, are you going to do, Mr. Chestermarke? Let us be plain with each other. You disclaim all liability in connection with my affair?” “Most certainly!” exclaimed Gabriel. “We know nothing of that transaction. As I have already said, if Horbury took charge of your lordship’s property, he did so as a private individual, not on our behalf, nor in his capacity as our manager. If your ■ordship had been a customer of ours ”

“That would have been a very different matter,” said Joseph. “But as we have never had any dealings with your lordship ” “We have, of course, no liability to you,” concluded Gabriel. “The true position of the case is that your lordship handed your property to Horbury as a friend, not as manager of Chestermarke’s Bank.”

“Then let me ask you—what are you going to do?” said the Earl. “I mean, not about my affair, but about finding your manager?” Gabriel looked at liis nephew. Joseph shook his head. “So far,” said Joseph, “we have not quite considered that. We are not yet fully aware of how things stand. We have a pretty good idea, but it will take another day ”

“You don’t mean to tell me that you’re going to let another day elapse before doing anything?” exclaimed the Earl. “Bless my soul! I’d have had the hue and cry out before noon today if I’d been you!” “If you’d been Chestermarke’s Bank, my lord,” remarked Joseph in his softest manner, “that’s precisely what you would not have done. We don’t want it noised all over the town and neighbourhood that our trusted manager has suddenly run away with our money—and your jewels—in his pocket.”

There was a curious note —halfsneering, half-sinister —in the junior partner's quiet voice which made the Earl turn and look at him with a sudden new interest. Before either could speak Neale ventured to say what he had been wanting to say for half-an-hour. “May I suggest something, sir?” he said, turning to Gabriel. “Speak, speak!” assented Gabriel, hastily. “Anything you like!” “Mr. Horbury may have met with hi accident,” said Neale. “Fie was fond of taking his walks in lonely places—there are plenty outside the town. He may be lying somewhere "\ - en now—helpless.” “Capital suggestion! Much obliged * you,” exclaimed the Earl. “Gad! I wonder we never thought of that before! Much the most likely thing. I can’t believe that Horbury ” Before he could say more the door of the dining-room was thrown onen clear, strong voice was heard speaking to someone without, and in walked i handsome young woman, who pulled herself up on the threshold to stare out of a fair of frank, grey eyes at the four startled men. CHAPTER IV. . . THE MODERN YOUNG WOMAN. Mrs. Carswell, who had left the gentlemen to themselves after opening the plate chest, followed the newcomer into the room and looked appealingly at the senior partner. 1 his is Miss Fosdyke, sir,” she said, as if accounting for the unceremonious entrance. “Mr. Horbury’s ” But Miss Fosdyke, having looked round her, entered the arena cf discussion as abruptly as she had entered the room.

“You’re Mr. Chestermarke!” she said turning to Gabriel. “I remember you. What’s all this, Mr. Chestermarke? I come down from London to meet my uncle, and to go on with him to Scotland for a holiday, and I learn that he’s disappeared. What is it? What has happened? Why are you all looking so mysterious? Is something wrong. Were is my uncle?” Gabriel, who had assumed his stereotyped expression of calm attention under this tornado of questions, motioned Joseph to place a chair for the young lady. But Miss Fosdyke shook

J. S. FLETCHER

earl. “I—l—so far as I’m concerned, I say there’s some mistake.” “Thank you,” she remarked quietly. “But you, Mr. Chestermarke? Come, I’m entitled to an answer.” Gabriel showed signs of deep annoyance. He had the reputation of being a confirmed woman-hater, and it was plain that lte was ill at ease in the presence of this plain-spoken young person. “You appear to be a lady of much common sense!” he said. Therefore ” “I have some common sense,” interrupted Miss Fosdyke coolly. “And what amount I possess tells me that

I never heard anything more ridiculous in my life than the suggestion that my uncle should steal anything from

j her head and returned to the attack. • "please don’t keep anything back,” she said. “I am not of the faintingi to-order type of young woman. Just I say what is the matter, if you please. | Mrs. Carswell knows no more ” “Than we do,” interrupted Joseph, with one of his peculiar smiles. ‘Had you not better sit down?” “Not until I know what has happened,” retorted the visitor. “Because if anything has happened there will be something for me to do. and its foolish to sit down when one’s got to get up again immediately. Mr. Chestermarke. are you going to answer my questions?” Gabriel bowed stiffly. “I have the honour of addressing ” he began. “You have the honour, if you like to put it so, of addressing Miss Betty Fosdyke, who is Mr. John Horbury’s niece,” replied the young lady impatiently. “Mrs. Carswell has told you that already. Besides, you saw me more than once when I was a little girl. And that’s not so very long ago. Now, Mr. Chestermarke, where is my uncle?” “I do not know where your uncle is,” replied Gabriel suddenly, and losing his starchiness. “I wish to Heaven I did.” “None of us know where Mr. John Horbury is,” repeated Joseph in his suavest tones. “We all wish to Heaven we did.” The girl turned and gave the iunior partner a look which took in every inch of him. It was a look which began with a swift speculation, and ended in something very like distaste. But Joseph Chestermarke met it with his usual quiet smile. “It would make such a lot of difference—if we knew,” he murmured. “As it is, things are unpleasant.” Miss Fosdyke finished her inspection and turned away. “I remember you now,” she said calmly. “You’re Joseph Chestermarke. Now I will sit down, and I insist on being told —-everything.” “My dear young lady,” exclaimed Gabriel, “there is next to nothing to tell. If you will have the unpleasant truth, here it is. Your uncle, whom we have trusted for more years than I care to mention, disappeared on Saturday evening, and nobody knows where he is nor whither he went. All we know is that we find some of our property missing—valuable securities. And this gentleman, Lord Ellersdeane, tells us that six weeks ago he entrusted jewels worth £IOO,OOO to your uncle’s keeping—they, too, are missing. What can we think?” The girl’s face had flushed, and her brows had drawn together in an angry frown by the time Gabriel had finished, and Neale, silently watching her from the background, saw her fingers clench themselves. She gave a swift glance at the earl, and then fixed her eyes steadily on Gabriel. “Are you telling me that my uncle is a—thief?” she demanded. “Are you, Mr. Chestermarke?” “I’m not, anyhow,” exclaimed the

anybody! Why he was, and is, I hope, a fairly well-to-do man! And if he wanted money, he’d only to come to me. It so happens that I’m one of the wealthiest young women in England. If my uncle had wanted a few thousands or tens of thousands to play ducks and drakes with he’d only to ring me up on the telephone, and he’d have had whatever he asked for in a few hours. That’s not boasting, Mr. Chestermarke —that’s just plain truth. My uncle a thief! Mr. Chestermarke! —there’s only one word for your suggestion. Don’t think me rude if I tell you what it is. It's bosh!” Gabriel’s colourless face twitched a little, and he drew himself up. “I have no acquaintance with modern young ladies,” he remarked, icily. “I daresay they have their own way of looking at things—and of expressing themselves. I, too, have mine. Also, I have my own conclusions, and ” “I say, Mr. Chestermarke!” said the Earl, hastening to intervene in what seemed likely to develop into a pas-sage-at-arms, “we’re forgetting the suggestion made just before this lady— Miss Fosdyke, I think? —entered. Don’t let’s forget it—it’s a good one.” Miss Fosdyke turned eagerly to the Earl. “What suggestion was it?” she asked. “Do tell me! I’m sure you agree with me—l can see you do.

“This gentleman,” said the Earl, pointing to Neale, who had retreated into a corner and was staring out of the window, “suggests that Horbury may have met with an accident, you know, and be lying helpless somewhere. I sincerely hope he isn’t, but ”

Miss Fosdyke jumped from her chair. She turned an indignant look on Gabriel and let it go on to Joseph. “You don’t mean to tell me that you have not done anything to find my uncle?” she exclaimed, with fiery emphasis. “You’ve surely had some search made?—surely!” “We knew nothing of his disappearance until ten o’clock this morning,” replied Gabriel, half angrily. “But—since then? Why, you’ve had

five hours!” she said. “Has nothing been done? Haven’t you even told the police?” “Certainly not!” answered Gabriel “It is not our policy ” Miss Fosdyke made one step to the door and swung it open. The next moment she had slammed the door, and Gabriel Chestermarke glanced at his partner. “Annoying!” he said. “A most unpleasant young woman! I should have preferred not to tell the police until —well, at any rate, to-morrow. We really do not know to what extent we are—but there, what’s the use of talking of that now? We can’t prevent her going to the police station.” “Why, really, Mr. Chestermarke,” observed the Earl, “don’t you think it’s the best thing to do? To tell you the truth, considering that I’m concerned, I was. going to do the very same thing myself.” “We could not have prevented your lordship, either,” he said with another wave of the white hands which seemed | to go well with the habitual pallor of his face. “All that is within your lordship’s jurisdiction—not in ours. But—especially since this young lady seems determined to do things in her own way—l will tell your lordship why we are slow to move. It is purely a business reason. It was, as I said, ten o’clock when we heard that Horbury was missing. That in itself was such a very strange and unusual thing that my partner and I at once began to examine the contents of our strong room. We had been so occupied five hours when your lordship called. Do you think we could examine everything in five hours? No —nor in ten, nor in twenty! Our task is not onequarter complete! And why we don’t wish publicity at once is here —we hold a vast number of securities and valuables belonging to customers. Titledeeds, mortgages—all sorts of things. We have valuables deposited with us. Up to now we don’t know what is safe and what isn’t. We do know this—certain securities of our own, easily convertible on the market, are gone! Now if we had allowed it. to be known before, say, noon to-day that our manager had disappeared, and these securities with him, what would have been the result? The bank would have been besieged! Before we left the public know we ourselves want to know exactly where we are. We want to be in a position to say to Smith ‘Your property is safe!’: to Jones. Your deeds are here!’ Does your lordship see that? But now, of course.” concluded Gabriel, “as this Miss Fosdyke can and will spread the news all over the town —why, we must face things. CTo be Continued.)

♦k^ rs * WiHielmine Ratjen, widow of P lO late Mr. Claus Joachim Ratjen. nas died at Newmarket at the age of Mr. and Mrs. Ratjen were natives * Kellinghusen, Schleswig-Holstein, Rd were married at Cathcart, Ausin 1857. Mr. Ratjen was a gold Prospector and in 1859 came to New Zealand with his wife. First settling at Alolyneux, Otago, they later moved jo Hokitika, Thames and Coromandel ]} the train of successive gold discovenes. They finally arrived m JUckland 40 years ago. Mr. Ratjen in 1890. * lrs - Ratjen is survived by one son U(X one daughter.