That was how things stood that Tuesday evening. The Traders' Bank had
suspended payment, and John Bailey was under arrest, charged with
wrecking it; Paul Armstrong lay very ill in California, and his only
son had been murdered two days before. I sat dazed and bewildered. The
children's money was gone: that was bad enough, though I had plenty, if
they would let me share. But Gertrude's grief was beyond any power of
mine to comfort; the man she had chosen stood accused of a colossal
embezzlement--and even worse. For in the instant that I sat there I
seemed to see the coils closing around John Bailey as the murderer of
Arnold Armstrong.
Gertrude lifted her head at last and stared across the table at Halsey.
"Why did he do it?" she wailed. "Couldn't you stop him, Halsey? It was
suicidal to go back!"
Halsey was looking steadily through the windows of the breakfast-room,
but it was evident he saw nothing.
"It was the only thing he could do, Trude," he said at last. "Aunt Ray,
when I found Jack at the Greenwood Club last Saturday night, he was
frantic. I can not talk until Jack tells me I may, but--he is
absolutely innocent of all this, believe me. I thought, Trude and I
thought, we were helping him, but it was the wrong way. He came back.
Isn't that the act of an innocent man?"
"Then why did he leave at all?" I asked, unconvinced. "What innocent
man would run away from here at three o'clock in the morning? Doesn't
it look rather as though he thought it impossible to escape?"
Gertrude rose angrily. "You are not even just!" she flamed. "You don't
know anything about it, and you condemn him!"
"I know that we have all lost a great deal of money," I said. "I shall
believe Mr. Bailey innocent the moment he is shown to be. You profess
to know the truth, but you can not tell me! What am I to think?"
Halsey leaned over and patted my hand.
"You must take us on faith," he said. "Jack Bailey hasn't a penny that
doesn't belong to him; the guilty man will be known in a day or so."
"I shall believe that when it is proved," I said grimly. "In the
meantime, I take no one on faith. The Inneses never do."
Gertrude, who had been standing aloof at a window, turned suddenly.
"But when the bonds are offered for sale, Halsey, won't the thief be
detected at once?"
Halsey turned with a superior smile.
"It wouldn't be done that way," he said. "They would be taken out of
the vault by some one who had access to it, and used as collateral for
a loan in another bank. It would be possible to realize eighty per
cent. of their face value."