Rising in the World CHAPTER 10.
Back to Rising in the World
Filled, by the positive assurance of his lawyer, with the hope of success, Malcolm, in a few months, became so much occupied with his suit that he neglected his business, which, at best, gave his family but a poor support. A large fortune was almost within his reach, and he could think of nothing but the near prospect of grasping it. What were the pennies, the tips, and the levies that came in so slowly over his counter, compared with property worth, at the lowest estimate, one hundred thousand dollars? No wonder that he felt contempt for his petty business, and neglected it.
Some time before the lawyers were ready to have the case called up for trial, Malcolm was beginning to feel sorely, the effects of his lack of attention to business. Several small bills had to lie over, thereby hurting his credit, and preventing him from keeping up a selling stock of goods.
Conscious that he was committing an error in allowing his mind to be so diverted from his business, Malcolm strove hard with himself to correct an error, but without effect. His eyes could not rest upon his own dry stubble-field — for looking at the golden grain waving in fields beyond.
At length creditors began to be urgent for their money; business grew worse and worse, and there was a prospect of a crisis in his affairs before any decision would be had upon his suit.
"Mr. Dunbar, I wish this matter hurried to an outcome," he said to his lawyer about six months after the suit had commenced. "If it is not, I shall be forced to accept Harrison's offer of twenty-five thousand dollars. I have more than half regretted fifty times since, that I hadn't closed with it."
"Are your circumstances so pressing?" inquired Dunbar.
"Indeed they are. There are three or four suits against me. I have the writs in my pocket. It is no use to defend them, for I have no defense to make. The claims are just. If I do not get relief soon, what little I have will go into the hands of the sheriff."
"That is bad," returned Dunbar, in a voice of sympathy. "But don't give up so easily, I can save your effects for you."
"How?"
"What are your goods and furniture worth?"
"Two thousand dollars, I suppose. My stock has got very low. The fact is, I have thought so much about this suit against Harrison — as to neglect my business. For these financial embarrassments, I have only myself to blame. I was a fool, but couldn't help it."
"You think they would bring two thousand dollars under the hammer, if fairly sold?"
"I hardly think they would bring that under the hammer."
"Two or three hundred, then?"
"O yes; readily."
"Very well. I will lend you three hundred dollars on your note on demand. This will make me your creditor. You can then confess judgment on the note, and I will issue an execution and sell you out by the sheriff before anyone else can get a judgment against you."
"Sell me out by the sheriff!" exclaimed Malcolm, with a look of surprise. "What difference will that make? It is this breaking up, root and branch process, that I wish to avoid."
"That is just what I want to do for you. I wish to save you. You don't understand, I see, the nature of an amicable sale by the sheriff."
"No, I certainly do not. Never having had anything to do with that gentleman, I am not familiar with all his proceedings."
"I will explain. By the laws of this State, no assignments of property for the benefit of particular creditors are legal. But by the same laws, the creditor who can first get out his execution sweeps off everything, provided his claim is as large as the proceeds of the property sold. This enables a debtor to give precedence to whomever he pleases by a confession of judgment. Of course there must be a sale of the property, but then it can be conducted in such a way as to attract very little attention. Leave the thing in my hands, and I will see that even your next door neighbor shall not know it. Of course, I do not mean to touch your property. My object is to secure you in its possession."
"But there must be public advertisements and handbills?" said Malcolm.
"I know. But the advertisement can be inserted in some country paper where no citizen will ever see it."
"But the handbills? To make it legal, they must be posted."
"Granted. But the law doesn't specify the number. Two will answer."
"It certainly requires them to be put up in public places."
"Very well. The sheriff's office is a public place."
"It can be seen there."
"Not if the face is to the wall; or if someone pulls it down in half a minute after it is put up. The law requires the bills to be put up, but doesn't say how long they shall remain up."
"A bell will have to be rung, and a bill put up on the premises."
"Yes. But the bell can be rung in the alley at the rear of your house. Or a few strokes of it made on the opposite side of the street, and no one be the wiser for it. As to the bill, the poster, who understands all this, will put it up a little after daylight, when there is no one in the street. Before he is out of sight, it can be torn down by a person employed for the purpose. For fifteen or twenty dollars, all this can be managed to a charm."
"I never heard of this before," said Malcolm, opening his eyes with astonishment.
"It is done every day," replied the lawyer.
"The men about the sheriff's office understand it all perfectly."
"Still, if anybody buys the goods, they must be delivered."
"That doesn't follow. You can get a friend to bid in everything in my name. He must bid very low, so that the entire amount of sales shall not exceed three hundred dollars. After that, I will settle all with the sheriff, and you can go on as before. The sale can take place in the room back of your store, and even your wife upstairs need not know it. All you have to do will be to furnish the deputy-sheriff with a correct list of what is to be sold. You can call a whole row of shelves a lot, to be struck off at a single bid, and he will go through all the forms of a sale in a low voice, and the clerk and customers in your store will be none the wiser."
"And that's the way it's done!" said Malcolm. "I have often wondered how people who were broken up root and branch, managed to retain their furniture, for instance."
"It is by the aid of friends, through an amicable sale."
"I did not expect this act of kindness from you, Mr. Dunbar," said Malcolm, now recollecting the deep obligation under which the lawyer was placing him. "When it is in my power, I hope to make you feel that I am grateful. What is done must be done, I suppose, immediately."
"Yes. For if it is not all over before judgments are obtained and executions issued by those who are suing — some trouble may be given, although the sale could not be prevented."
"I am ready to have the matter as speedily arranged as possible."
"Very well. If you will draw me a note on demand for three hundred dollars, I will hand you my check for that amount. Tomorrow, when you will call, the confession of judgment can be made. Things will go on smoothly enough after that. Leave it all in my hands. I can manage these underlings of the law to a nicety. In due time I will notify you how to act."
The thing proposed by the lawyer was done. Malcolm was quietly sold out by the sheriff — and Dunbar got legal possession of all the goods in his store and furniture in his house.
"I think I shall be able to manage him now," he said to himself, with a cold and heartless sneer, "should he prove troublesome. Harrison will hear no more from him after this suit is lost. What fools some men are!"
Back to Rising in the World