Making Haste to Be Rich! CHAPTER 11.
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"Isn't it wonderful how that young man has gotten along? He is said to be worth five or six hundred thousand dollars."
"It is, indeed. But it shows what may be done by industry and shrewdness. He is the hardest man I ever dealt with. Somehow or other, he always manages to get the best side of a bargain."
"That is the true way. He understands the right system."
"To get rich — but it isn't always an honest system."
"Men don't generally stop to inquire about the honesty involved, when a good bargain is before them. Every man has to look out for himself. He who gets ahead as things are now, must have his eyes open."
"I have heard it said, that Riddell talks of retiring from business, having made as much as he wants."
"It would be a sign of discretion, if he were to do so."
"I was talking with Partridge about him this morning. He says that he has advised him to do it, and give place for others to come forward — that he has made enough."
"Do you really think Riddell is worth as much as you intimated just now?"
"Partridge says he knows him to be worth every cent of it; and he is generally correct in his estimations."
"It seems almost incredible that so much money could have been made in so short a time."
"Doesn't it. But Riddell is no common man."
"True. He's one in a thousand."
Thus were the many deceived by appearances. Each of the confederates in the Eagleton Bank scheme, stood aloof from the others, as far as it was possible to do so, when the public eye was upon them; and each took pains to speak of the substantiality of the others, on all proper occasions. The mass were easily misled in this way, and echoed and re-echoed the story of their great wealth. A few saw deeper, and confidently prophesied the end. But their words fell unheeded. They were alluded to as croakers, as those who were behind the spirit of the age; as plodders in a beaten track. Dozens were tempted to depart from a safe and prudent business, in the eager desire to get rich fast, with which the example of Riddell had inspired them.
But we must pursue the history of the man who was making haste to be rich.
As freely as came into his hands the bills of the Eagleton Bank, and as freely as he could pay them away, Riddell found that the erection of his elegant house, in which over eighty thousand dollars were expended, had made money matters exceedingly tight with him. On the day following the evening on which he had given a splendid entertainment to commemorate the fact of his taking possession of his new house, and to display its rich interior to the eyes of those who would look upon it all as another evidence of his immense wealth, he found himself with thirty thousand dollars to pay in the bank, and a balance in his favor of less than five thousand dollars. On the day before, his payments had been ten thousand dollars, and in the week preceding, not less than an equal sum. In providing for these, following as they did, other heavy payments, Riddell had compassed nearly the whole of his available resources for the time, and he was, therefore, in a strait. If he had possessed any paper, even though drawn by the man in the moon, he could have negotiated it in some way. To Partridge he had already applied oftener for an exchange of notes, than he deemed prudent. In fact, some things had come to his observation that awakened doubts as to the real stability of his friend, and he felt more than an incipient desire to get less involved with him than he now was.
"What is to be done?" was the serious question he asked himself, as he sat at his desk, with a memorandum of the amount of money to be raised, written out upon a piece of paper and lying before him.
For the third or fourth time he looked through the great pocketbook, in which bills receivable were deposited, but there was little or nothing there. Then he thought whether he could not get from the Secretary of the "Union Insurance Company" post-notes of the Institution for twenty-five thousand dollars on his individual note alone. But the fear, lest the effort to do this would create a bad impression, deterred him from attempting that mode of raising the money.
It so happened, that, on the very evening before, he had been reading in an English Magazine, put into his hands by Partridge, some passages in an "Autobiography of John Ketch," which gave an account of the execution of the well known Fauntleroy, Doctor Dodd, and others, for forgery. Strangely enough, he had not thought so much about the dreadful end to which these men had come, as about the peculiar nature of the means they used in obtaining money, which was to draw bills in, or endorse them with, fictitious names.
While pondering over the difficulty he was in, and regretting the lack of good business or other paper upon which he could procure money, the ease with which a bill could be created, drawn in his favor, and signed by an imaginary name, occurred to him. He could make the note payable in his own city, and allege that the drawer was a merchant somewhere at the South or West. His own name would be sufficient for its negotiation, so fair was his credit, and so potent was his influence in certain quarters. The first presentation of the thought startled him, and he turned from it instantly. But, in turning, he turned to no other resource for getting out of the difficulty, and, therefore, his mind again came back to the suggestion, and he looked at it more steadily. In a very little while, the first instinctive reluctance that he felt was not perceived; and he began earnestly to think of the matter, and to ponder the risk involved in this new system of money getting. It was not, he argued with himself, forgery, for the name of no real person was used; and, even in the event of discovery, which was by no means probable, could not be considered forgery in the eye of the law.
But, even after all the doubts and difficulties that started in his mind, had, by specious arguments, been removed, there still remained a strong, instinctive repugnance, to doing the thing proposed; and again Riddell turned away, and earnestly sought for some other means of saving himself. None, however, presented themselves. It seemed, after this suggestion came, that his mind lost its resources. Nothing that he could think of gave the least hope of affording relief.
"It must be done!" he at length said to himself, with a desperate resolution, and a feeling such as no man would twice be willing to endure. But the moment of bitterness was soon past, and in doing what he had resolved to do, he found less pain than he feared would attend it.
Ten notes of various amounts, dates, and periods, were drawn, all signed, in a disguised hand, with imaginary names, and rendered payable at various banks in the city. Their sum was thirty thousand dollars. With these he went to the secretary of the "Union Insurance Company," of which he was president, and for them obtained three post notes of the company, payable in three, four, and six months. No difficulty was experienced in turning these post notes into cash. There were always plenty of money lenders glad to get them, at a trifle above legal interest.
When Riddell, that evening, encountered the clear, steady look of his wife, his eyes drooped beneath her gaze. He felt that she must read what he had done in his countenance; and he also felt, at that moment, that he would sooner have died than have her come into the possession of his secret.
That night he dreamed that he was engaged with Fauntleroy in his great system of forgery, and a prey to the most distressing fears of detection and consequent death. Then his dream changed. He was Fauntleroy himself — detected, imprisoned, tried, and sentenced to expiate his crime against society upon the gallows. In horror he awoke, great beads of perspiration standing upon his forehead.
But familiarity with this new mode of "financiering" soon dispelled all such dreams. It worked so well that he grew almost careless about looking after the real paper which his large business was regularly bringing in, half forgetting, in his blindness, that there would be no one but himself to provide for these fictitious bills.
Nor did he know that one of his compeers, the one who had put into his hands the magazine containing the "autobiography of John Ketch," had his eyes upon him, and was closely watching his every movement. He had been playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse, and now he was meditating the end. Partridge knew exactly the ground upon which Riddell was standing, and saw that there was danger of his going by the board too soon, if means were not provided by which he could sustain himself for something like a year longer, and until he could withdraw from all connection with him involving risk, or likely to reflect discredit upon him as a man of integrity when the final crash came; and come he knew it must. He was a greater villain than Riddell, because he had a cooler head and acted from a more deliberate purpose. He judged correctly, when he supposed that the reading of Fauntleroy forgeries would suggest to Riddell, in his difficulties, a similar mode of proceeding, and he took care to afford his victim an opportunity of perusing the history of which allusion has been made.
Partridge naturally concluded, that if Riddell manufactured paper, he would exchange it for post notes of the "Union Insurance Company," a thing he was in the habit of doing, regularly, with business and accommodation paper. Being a director in this company, and acquainted with all its doings, as well as, for reasons best known to himself, on familiar terms with the secretary, Partridge had the means of knowing, at all times, what paper the company received and held. It must be understood that the board gave the secretary discretionary power in case notes were offered when it was not sitting; and this power was used to favor a few — Partridge, Riddell (who was president), and some others.
This understood, it will not be a matter of wonder that Partridge detected the forgeries of Riddell on the very day they were made. Notwithstanding the care with which the fictitious notes were drawn, with a view to prevent suspicion, there was, in the eyes of already awakened suspicion, unmistakable evidence of the fraud. But, in a matter like this, assurance sought to be doubly assured. With the utmost coolness, Partridge said to Riddell, on the very day he made the discovery of what had been done —
"I observed a note this morning, left by you at the 'Union,' drawn by Jacob Ellerby. Who is he? I don t think I remember a merchant of that name. Does he belong to this city, or is he found in the country?"
Steadily were the eyes of Partridge fixed upon Riddell as he said this, and he saw enough to more than confirm his suspicions. And yet an indifferent onlooker would have seen nothing worthy of remark.
"He is a merchant of Lexington, Kentucky," replied Riddell, without the slightest hesitation, "who has recently commenced business. His father is a rich farmer near Paris, so he states. He brought on such letters as induced me to give him credit. Was he not in your store?"
"No. I have not heard of him at all, which is the reason I asked. You are satisfied that he is good?"
"Perfectly."
"I must try and find him out, then, the next time he visits our city, and sell him a bill myself."
With this remark, Partridge completely lulled to rest any doubt that his questions had awakened in the mind of Riddell. On that very day he wrote to a correspondent in Lexington, asking if there was a merchant there named Ellerby, and to a correspondent in Paris, Kentucky, to know if a farmer by the same name resided near that town. In due time answers came from both places, and they were in the negative.
"Very well," said Partridge to himself, coolly folding the last of these replies, and placing it in his desk; "that settles the matter. I must disconnect myself with the young gentleman as rapidly as I can, so as to be out of the reach of danger, when the brittle fabric of his fortune comes tumbling down upon him. He's a bold fellow, and deserves a better fate; but he lacked prudence, and a mind that could see farther, in order to balance off his boldness. But it is the case with nine out of ten who venture upon these seas; they carry more sail than ballast. I warned him of this in the beginning. His new system of money-raising will give him, for a time, if he pursues it, as I have no doubt he will, the command of plenty of means. He will need no more exchanges of notes with me; and four months will close up all transactions of that kind at present existing. After that I must sell off, quietly, my stock in the Eagleton Bank, which will net me, at eighty dollars a share, nearly forty thousand dollars; and increase my indebtedness to the utmost extent, which I can pay off in depreciated paper after the blowup, and make, in that way, over a hundred thousand dollars clear. This will be better than using any more of the 'Union' post notes, with their confounded 'payable to order,' which makes every man who gets them responsible. I believe I have used that concern to the extent dictated by prudence. As soon as Riddell is so well in for his Fauntleroy scheme, that he has no hope but in its continuance, I will withdraw from the 'Union' Board, and leave the control of affairs to others who will have to bear the odium of its mismanagement, when that goes down with the Eagleton Bank and 'Mutual Savings Fund.'"
Partridge mused thus, and laid his plans with the utmost coolness, while his partners in the great fraud that was to ruin dozens of men, and bring loss upon hundreds — had no suspicion of what was in his mind.
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