PAID IN FULL

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21226, 24 September 1940, Page 8

PAID IN FULL

= NEW SERIAL STORY 5

by H. S. Sarbert

CHAPTER Vlll.—(Continued.) “I've nothing further to add,” he stated. “I’ve given you all the particulars. You know the state of affairs, and you know the time you’ve got—seven days at the outside. If things are not settled satisfactorily then—well, we must be prepared for the worst, that's all. And there will be a prosecution, youngster—nake no mistake about it. I beieve what you've told me, every .vord of it. I believe you acted n good faith; but you're over twenty-one. and you must accept the legal responsibility. It stands to reason we shall seek round for the others, but that will not alter your position in the matter —and it would not prevent you from being prosecuted. That’s all I’ve got to ~ay to you. Seven days! You must get seven hundred and fifty pounds n seven days. And—l’m genuinely orry for you. Good-night!” A Business Deal He laid a hand on the other’s shoulder, gave it a gentle pressure, for Mr Wyman could be very human, and this might have been a son of his own, a fine, clean, goodlooking boy, whose career was being jeopardised at the outset. It was too bad! Harry went straight off to Carrie’s house. He told her everything, and she saw the look of horror in his eyes. It was not easy for her to look at him—this boy who had been so badly disillusioned. He had been so trusting, so grateful for all he believed was being done for him, and now he had found out the truth. But there was nothing she could say about her own father, nothing that she could suggest. She could only tell Harry that she did not know where to get in touch with her father. “Why did your father do this thing to me?” Harry whispered brokenly, “oh, why did he do it?” “I—l don’t know,” she answered. “Perhaps they thought it would not be noticed.” “Not noticed? Why, that would have made things a thousand times worse,” Harry declared. “If they were deliberately putting in bad materials the people who were puting down their savings to buy would have been deliberately tricked and swindled. You must see that for yourself, Carrie. You simply must! And if ”

“Harry, I—l don’t understand business. I can only tell you that 1 didn't know anything about it—that if I had, I should have stopped it! Oh, surely you don't think I’m to blame? You don’t think 1 knew all about the scheme? Why I’ve been left behind as well. I’m just as much upset as you are. In fact —1 think my heart is breaking!” She began to cry- She was very good at that. She could always summon tears at will. At once his arms went around her, he held h£r closely to him, and he kissed her passionately. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he whispered. “I don’t blame you. I know you’re not to blame. Forgive me if I even made the suggestion, but it—it’s.all such a terrible shock —such a bombshell—that I don’t know what to think—or do?”

“You’ll have to go to your father, Harry.” “I can’t,” Harry stated. “I just couldn't do that!” But Carrie, who had treated Harry’s father with so much scorn and disdain, who always declared that her wits would be a match, and more than a match, for those of a village grocer, was quick enough to urge this now. “It’s the only thing to be done,” she said. “Harry, you must get in touch with your father at once. I think, perhaps, you had better wire him to come up here—then you can explain.” Harry said again that he could not do so, but in the end he did as she suggested. His telegram reached his father early the next morning, and brought him to town by the first available train. The same afternoon David had a long interview with George Wyman, and at the end of it he said grimly: “So it amounts to this: My boy has been made the victim of swindlers.”

Wyman shrugged his shoulders. “It looks very much as if that were so,” he stated. “They call themselves financiers, and that is an elastic sort of term. There are straight financiers and crooked ones —the type who only seek to make what they can, and don’t care a great deal how they make it. I’m very sorry, Mr Preston. It's hard on you, and hard —terribly hard—on the boy. I like him. He’s a nice lad, and I believe he’s a clever lad, too. He might have had a big future in front of him.”

Suddenly David Preston brought his hand down on the desk, and his eyes blazed. “Don’t talk that way!” he exclaimed. “Don’t talk like that to me, man! I tell you to your face that I won't have it. Don’t say ‘might and had,’ as if the last hope had gone. It hasn’t! My boy has got a big future in front of him; he’s going to make good; he’s going to make me proud of him, and he’s going to be proud of himself. I’ll get this money for you. . I’ll see that it’s all paid back—every penny of it. But there’s going to be no shadow on my boy’s future—everything is going to be all right for him.” With those words David Preston walked out of the office. David Preston did not have a great deal to say to Harry when he visited his son. He just told him not to worry; that everything would be all right. Then he took the next train back to Shalford. He went to his own shop first of all, and, opening the safe, took from it certain papers. There was the last balance sheet of his business properly drawn up by a firm of accountants. Following that David made his way over to old John Winn’s place, and it was Viola who greeted him as he entered the shop. “How is Harry? Did you see him, Mr Preston?” Harry’s father nodded. “Ay, lass. I saw him!” “Is he better?” “He’s not so bad,” Mr Preston answered evasively. “I think he’s making quite a good recovery.” (To be continued)