Retiring from Business CHAPTER 17.
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ALL LOST.
On the morning after LeGrand left, a broker came into the office, and asked for him. Edwin said that he had gone to Boston.
"Ah! I'm sorry for that," returned the man, with a slightly disappointed air. But perhaps you can do what I want just as well. Yesterday, I loaned Mr. LeGrand eight thousand dollars, for three or four days. Unexpectedly, I am drawn upon for fifteen thousand, and shall be hard put to it to make up the sum unless I can get you to return me the money which I let you have yesterday. Do you think you can do it?"
"Oh yes, I presume so," replied Edwin, promptly. And he referred to the cash book, and found that the balance on deposit was ten thousand dollars. Without taking time for reflection, he drew a check and handed it to the broker, who returned the memorandum which LeGrand had given him.
Ten minutes afterwards, the broker reappeared and said, in a way that rather amazed both Edwin and his father,
"You have no money in bank!"
"Who says so?" inquired Edwin, in a quick voice.
"The teller."
"Another of his blunders," remarked Mr. Franklin, impatiently.
The checkbook was again referred to. The balance stood then at ten thousand dollars.
"Come over in a quarter of an hour, and I'll have the money here for you," said Edwin. "It's a mistake of the book-keeper, I presume."
The man retired, and Edwin went immediately over to the bank.
"You've made another mistake," he said to the teller, a little fretfully.
"How so?" was inquired.
"Why, you refused our check for eight thousand dollars, when we have a balance of ten thousand on deposit."
The teller went to the book-keeper, who turned to Franklin & LeGrand 's account. As it stood on the Deposit Ledger, there was an over-draft of five hundred dollars.
"Impossible!" said Edwin, when this was announced. "It's a mistake."
The book-keeper footed the two columns of figures, and struck the balance once more. The balance was the same.
"Will you send over your bank book and let me balance it?" said he to Edwin. "By that means the error, wherever it is, will appear. There is a check of ten thousand, five hundred dollars charged yesterday."
Edwin went back to the office, and again examined the check-book. No such check as that mentioned by the book-keeper was noted there. The balance of ten thousand dollars appeared in LeGrand's figures.
This discovery produced on the mind of both Mr. Franklin and his son, a sense of uneasiness. Edwin went over to the bank and asked to see the ten thousand dollar check. It was genuine, and drawn by LeGrand!
Eight thousand dollars had been loaned, and over ten thousand dollars checked out of bank on the eve of LeGrand 's departure for Boston, and no memorandum of either transaction could be found. Mr. Franklin did not like the appearance of this. Although LeGrand managed affairs pretty much in his own way, a regular system of entries had always been observed.
"Well. Have you discovered the error?" said the broker, from whom the eight thousand dollars had been borrowed, coming in soon after Edwin returned from the bank.
"Not yet," replied the young man, evasively.
The broker looked at him for a moment half suspiciously, while the word, "Strange!" came in a low tone from his lips.
"What is strange?" asked Mr. Franklin, who was standing beside the counter, compressing his lips and looking steadily at the man, whose manner fretted him.
"Strange that such a mistake should be made!" replied the man, with a smile.
"It is not the first time mistakes have occurred in that branch," said Edwin. "We shall have our book settled up immediately, when the error will appear. I am sorry that it has happened today, for it will prevent my returning you the borrowed money. But this will not, I hope, be of much inconvenience to you. Tomorrow, Mr. LeGrand will be home."
Edwin spoke in a decided tone. The man said he was sorry, lingered for a short time, and then withdrew.
"I don't like the appearance of this," remarked Mr. Franklin, as soon as they were alone, and his face, as well as the expression of his voice, were serious.
"He could have no use for money in Boston," said Edwin.
"None of which I can conceive."
As Mr. Franklin said this, he stepped to the safe, and took out the large pocket-book in which bills and drafts were kept, and commenced searching through it with nervous haste. The act seemed prompted by a sudden thought. Twice he opened every pocket, and examined every paper contained therein. When the search was completed, he turned with a pale face and a quivering lip to his son, and said in a hoarse whisper,
"We are betrayed and ruined!"
"How? How?" eagerly asked Edwin.
"Not one of the notes for that large sale of stock are here!"
"Impossible!" exclaimed Edwin, catching up the pocket-book which had fallen from his father's hands, and hastily examining its contents.
"Gone — as I live!"
"Perhaps they are in his desk. He may have forgotten to put them in the safe," said Mr. Franklin, clutching at this hope.
Edwin went to LeGrand 's private desk. It was locked, as usual. Without hesitation, the young man forced it open. But the notes were not there, nor could they be found in the office.
"Seventy thousand dollars in his possession!" said Mr. Franklin, "and Heaven knows how much more. All is lost. We are betrayed and ruined! ruined! ruined!"
And the father unable to control himself under the sudden shock of a discovery that argued such a sweeping disaster, stood trembling from head to foot. Edwin was calmer, although he had the most oppressive fears.
"Let us not betray our alarm to others," said he, seeing how strongly his father exhibited what he felt. He may return tomorrow, and if so, he can explain all this, and none need be the wiser of it."
"Explain! Return! Edwin! I tell you that all is lost!" replied Mr. Franklin, exhibiting terrible agitation. "The English steamer sails today at noon, and he goes in her. Oh! that I should have been so weak — so ruined!" And he struck his hand against his forehead, like one half beside himself.
Just at this moment, the broker before mentioned, whose suspicions, from some cause, had became excited, re-entered the office, and heard Mr. Franklin's closing remark.
"Without doubt," said he, "your suspicions are correct, for I have just learned that during the last few days he has been a heavy purchaser of London and Paris bills of exchange."
"London and Paris Exchange!" responded Edwin.
"Yes, sir. Have you had any use for such funds in your regular transactions?"
Both the father and son were too much confounded by this intelligence to be able to assume even a prudent reserve. Edwin acknowledged that he was entirely ignorant of the foregoing exchange purchase.
This was enough for the broker. He retired, and in half an hour it was in everyone's mouth in Wall Street, that LeGrand had gone off in the steamer, a defaulter to a very serious amount. The moment this became current, there were dozens to press forward and give information of transactions had with him during the preceding four days, which completely extinguished every lingering hope in the mind of Mr. Franklin and his son. They were, indeed, betrayed and ruined!
The shock of this disaster was too severe for Mr. Franklin. The fortune for which he had toiled so many years, and upon which he had fondly hoped to spend happily, in ease and retirement, the remaining days of his life — was swept away as a leaf before the blast! It was hopelessly gone; and now, with age stealing on him, and all the ardent hopes of early manhood extinguished, he found himself penniless. He could not bear up under the pressure of this calamity; and there was a time when, in the deep melancholy that followed, that his family became sincerely alarmed for his reason.
Edwin was left, unsustained, to meet the shock which followed the certain news that LeGrand had left the country with his booty. A position so new and trying for one so young, and we might add, for one so weak, developed a strength of character that no one supposed him to possess. Two years of earnest attention to business, had not been lost on him. He was able in the settlement of affairs to present clear statements, and to show the precise nature and extent of his partner's defalcations, to the satisfaction of all parties. Everyone felt commiseration both for himself and his father, and after Edwin had resigned everything in the shape of property in his possession, he urged the creditors to give him a release from the heavy balance that remained. None objected to this, as it was deemed utterly useless to hold a young man like him.
In order to give every facility to the business, Mr. Franklin had converted his entire property, with the exception of the dwelling he occupied, into cash, and placed at the disposal of the treacherous villain who was bent on his ruin. He also endorsed the notes of Franklin and LeGrand to a large amount. When the crash came, at least thirty thousand dollars of notes was bearing his name. The holders of this seized his dwelling, which was sold for twelve thousand dollars, and he was forced to retire, with his unhappy family, into obscurity, with no visible means of obtaining for them even the absolute necessaries of life. Through the efforts of Edwin, whose mind seemed to grow clearer and more energetic, a release was obtained for his father, after this remnant of his property had been given up. Even the most selfish pitied him, and cancelled the hopeless claims they held against him.
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