him when he took his accustomed seat give you a note to Kraft, the office manager.
opposite Ann, but he caught a quick Report for work to-morrow.”
interchange of looks between them as he
Austin found Kraft a medium-sized,
unfolded his napkin. The girl raised her eyes
very blond man with a bulging forehead,
to his for a moment, then dropped them again,
prominent glassy blue eyes and a nervous,
hurriedly.
jerky manner. He was known among his
He ate mechanically and with no business associates as a booster. He was thought upon the food. Stoddard’s always “on his toes” about something, even if conversation with his wife was monosyllabic
that something was merely an order for new
as usual, and he consumed his food with noisy
typewriter ribbons. He expressed himself in
indelicacy. His smooth, flat skull gleamed detonations; his simplest remarks were minor dully in the soft light. His heavy face had the explosions. He prided himself upon a brisk
peculiar mottled and flabby aspect of a toad’s
and business-like manner; he was merely a
belly, and the toad-like effect was further gatling-gun firing an unceasing barrage at accentuated by the short neck upon which his
some spot, the range of which was uncertain,
head was thrust forward, slightly in advance
but which he hoped to hit by the simple law of
of the rest of his body.
averages. It never seemed to occur to him that
He never seemed more repulsive to
by purchasing a range-finder he could have
Austin than at this moment. The young man
saved himself a lot of ammunition.
Amazing Stories
10
He put Austin to work as a file clerk,
bonds and stocks. Also that the firm was not
not because he needed one, but because always overscrupulous how the offerers of Stoddard had told him to create this position.
them had come by them, as long as they were
The files of the Stoddard Development and
negotiable or bearer certificates and the price Realty Company were like all concerns of this
was right. In one instance he had been sent to
kind: a simple record of sales made and of
the bank to cash a large cheque. The money,
property listed for sale. They were consulted
some four thousand dollars had been given to
only upon enquiry from some customer a hard-looking individual who had been in answering an advertisement or to compute Mr.
long and earnest conversation with Stoddard
Stoddard’s very large income tax. The in his private office, and, who left behind him Stoddard Company were specialists in their
a bundle of securities identical with those
line, “Realtors of the Better Kind,” was Mr.
mentioned in the headlines of a morning paper
Kraft’s slogan. They handled nothing but large
as having been stolen in the robbery of a
business (properties and development projects
bonding house a few days previously.
running into six or seven figures.
Stoddard had put the bonds away in his safe at
Austin’s clerkship consisted merely of
once and later had removed them to his safe
half a dozen trips a day to pull a card from the deposit box at the bank. This fact gave Austin
files and bring it to Mr. Kraft’s or Mr. food for thought.
Stoddard’s desk. The balance of his time was
Certain plans had begun to form in his
taken up in running errands about town. These
mind. They became crystallized almost at
errands were many and varied, such as taking
once, when one afternoon Doctor Goldwin
documents to the Recorder’s Office, making
summoned him to his office.
deposits at the bank, carrying papers to and
“I’ve some good news for you,” the
from the title companies, delivering leases,
old physician told him, “Doctor Swartz from
serving vacating notices, putting up rental Vienna will be here in New York this summer.
placards on vacant properties and “For Sale”
His gland operations are nothing short of
signs on empty plots.
surgical miracles. I haven’t said anything to
He began to get some insight into how
you about him before, because I did not want
modern business was conducted. He learned,
to raise false hopes in you, but after watching observed, and paid close attention. He knew
his work for the past four or five years, I’m
that he was holding his position at the convinced that if you have the courage to Stoddard firm on sufferance only, and that
submit to his knife, you’ll be permanently
Stoddard was watching for a slip as an excuse
cured. His fee is ten thousand dollars. I guess to discharge him, so he executed his you can manage that sum. I’ll have a talk with commissions with diligence and attention to
Mr. Stoddard about advancing you the
the minutest detail. His time was limited. money.”
Sooner or later the axe would fall. He watched
Austin held his breath. The plan which
every move of the firm. Nothing escaped him.
he had worked out would be frustrated if
He knew that an outright monetary reprisal
Stoddard found out about his affliction. He
was out of the question. The firm’s business
considered momentarily the wisdom of
was done almost entirely by checks, and the
confiding in Doctor Goldwin about the cutting
limited amount of cash in the office safe was
off of his allowance, but decided against it.
not worth his while.
His plans required that he play a lone hand.
He found that Stoddard did a good deal
The possibilities which the physician’s
of trading on his own account in high grade
announcement of Doctor Swartz’ visit held for
The Grim Inheritance
11
him, sent the blood pounding to his temples.
whom he had left his sloop in charge for the
His future, Ann, life as a normal human being,
past year, to overhaul the boat thoroughly for
the father of children—Ann’s children....
a long cruise that summer. This and the
“I’ll see Stoddard, myself,” he said,
stocking of the boat with provisions took half
“please don’t mention my—affliction to him.
of his limited capital.
I’ll get the money from him on some pretext
He visited his old home while he was
or other. Promise me that you won’t say negotiating the repairs on the boat. The fine anything to him about it,” he insisted, old grounds had been subdivided into building earnestly.
plots, and rows of small cottages all alike as
“As you wish,” Doctor Goldwin peas, shut off the view of the Sound from the replied. He smiled indulgently at what he once wooded slopes. Knowing what he did of thought was a display of sensitiveness. “This
business now, he marveled at his own
is May. Doctor Swartz will be here early in
credulity in signing the papers which Stoddard
August. I want you to be ready for him.”
had submitted to him from time to time, and to
“I’ll be ready for him
,” Austin said,
which he, Austin, had put his signature
“I’ll have ten thousand dollars in your hands
without as much as glancing at them. He saw
by the first of August.”
how completely his utter ignorance of
“Very well. You must rest during the
business had delivered him into Stoddard’s
month of July in preparation for the operation.
hands. The man would hardly have been
Get Stoddard to let you take your vacation
human to resist the temptation.
early.”
Austin shed a tear or two for the fate of
“I will,” Austin replied. “Don’t forget
the old home, then set his face resolutely
your promise Stoddard must not know.”
toward the future.
“I’ve given you my word, my boy,”
the old physician said as he escorted him to
THE weeks that followed were busy ones for
the door.
him. As he worked during the day, only his
Once outside, Austin realized that he
evenings were available for his preparations.
had committed himself definitely to an At a store in the Bowery district he purchased obligation that would take all his sagacity to
an entire new outfit of cheap flashy clothes, a live up to, but the discovery that a permanent
tie that only a race track tout would have
cure was possible made all other things dared to wear, a soft Fedora hat with brightly possible. He could go to Ann with clean colored band, and a pair of light tan button hands. If he had had any misgivings about the
shoes that shrieked to heaven. He also
success of his plan, they were now swept
purchased a pair of dark eye glasses of the
aside.
variety known colloquially as “rubber-tired.”
There was no time to lose in putting
These things he carried to the stoop in
the scheme in operation. His time was more
a suitcase and stowed away in the small cabin.
limited than ever now. A certain amount of
When the repairs on the boat had been
cash was necessary. This he secured from the
consummated, he sailed the little craft into the pawning of his mother’s jewels. He felt a stab
East River one Sunday past Hell-gate, and
of remorse at parting with them for even a few
moored it in the angle of one of the piers at the months, but he had to have money. With the
foot of Eighty-sixth Street near the ferry dock.
proceeds he went to the fishing village on
The Stoddard house was in the Eighties, just
Long Island near his old home and left off Fifth Avenue, a run of less than ten instructions with the boatman there with minutes on the Eighty-sixth Street crosstown
Amazing Stories
12
bus from where the yawl was moored.
He waved her fears aside. They clung
His last move was to purchase a five
to each other in the dusk of the warm spring
hundred dollar bond of a certain public evening. When they parted she said: utilities corporation with the remainder of his
“Even if you do not raise the money
money. The bond was one of those standard
for the operation, we can work together and
securities in which widows invest their life
save until we have enough. Nothing matters
insurance money and which are as negotiable
except that I love you.”
and almost as safe as United States Treasury
“There
are
others
to think of,” he
notes.
replied, as he kissed her tenderly and fiercely It was early in June when all his in the same breath. “For their sake I’ve got to preparations were perfected. He went over win.”
everything in detail. Every step he meant to
The following Saturday he packed up a
take was planned out. The audacity and few necessary things and departed for his yawl boldness of the plan augured well for its moored at the foot of Eighty-sixth Street. His success.
mind became filled with a sort of subtle
On the evening of the fifth of June he
intoxication as he began to put his plan into
approached Stoddard with the request that his
operation. He had no intention of going to
summer vacation begin that following Bermuda for a month or so. He simply stayed Saturday. The alacrity with which Stoddard
aboard the well-provisioned and comfortable
granted the request amused him. He was not
little craft and proceeded to deprive himself of needed at the Stoddard Development and his medicine. With the memory in his mind of Realty Company and knew that he was kept
the image he had seen in the cheval mirror of
on merely because Stoddard was just a little
his room, when his mother and Doctor
bit afraid of him.
Goldwin had brought him back from
“I would like to run down to Bermuda
Gloucester, the procedure took every ounce of
in the yawl. I may be gone two months or so,
will power he possessed. The inforced
if you have no objection.” Austin told him.
inactivity of one month which was necessary
him unrecognizable, would have appalled a
turn this circumstance to his own account less determined man. The result would have when Austin returned, by letting the young
made a heart, less stout than his, fail.
man out on the plea that business was not
what it ought to be. At any rate it gave him an A Strange Visitor
excellent opening to dispense with his
“protege’s services.”
IT was on a very hot afternoon in the first
“Take as long as you like,” he replied
days of July that Stoddard, perspiring in his
with a magnanimous wave of his pudgy hand.
shirt sleeves in his office received a bulky
“Thank you, sir,” said Austin, gravely.
special delivery letter. He ran his stubby
He had a long talk with Ann that forefinger under the flap of the envelope, evening in a secluded corner of Central Park,
wondering mildly what its contents might be.
where he had asked her to meet him. He told
When a five hundred dollar negotiable bond of
her many things, some of which stirred her to
a certain well-known public utilities
wonder and filled her dark eyes with corporation dropped into his hand, his pale tenderness and others that made her fearful for blue eyes lighted with sudden interest and the
him.
interest was heightened by the contents of the
The Grim Inheritance
13
typed letter which accompanied it.
of all the cash Stoddard possessed in the world and perhaps partly because the writer of the
“Mr. J. C. Stoddard, New York City,”
letter was aware of this fact.
he read:
Mr. Scanlon explained that as for
“Dear Sir:—A pal of mine—never reasons of expediency, he was “lying low” in mind who—advised me that you would be in
the Bowery district, and did not care to be
the market for securities of this kind if the
abroad in daylight, because the sun hurt his
price was right I have $200,000 worth of them
eyes; he would call at Mr. Stoddard’s home
and my price is right. Thirty-three per cent,
address which had been given him by their
discount for cash. If not interested, please mutual “friend,” with the package of bonds.
return the enclosed sample at once,
Further, that if Mr. Stoddard would have the
“Sincerely
hundred thousand in a certified cheque ready
yours,
for him at, say, eleven o’clock, on a certain
night, the deal could be consummated without
“Joseph Scanlon,
any fuss or feathers.
Mr. Stoddard agreed to all this except
“General Delivery, New York,”
on one count. He was a careful man. A
certified cheque would constitute a legal
Stoddard dabbed his bald skull with a
record of a transaction that might cause him
damp, purple-bordered silk handkerchief. He
some little embarrassment to explain away to
turned the certificate over, examined it closely an inquisitive prosecutor, if Mr. Scanlon
and held it up to the light. It was undoubtedly should recover from his eye trouble and
genuine. It carried six and one-quarter per
venture forth in broad daylight. The cash
cent, interest and was worth, he knew, fully
would be on band in large bills, he stated by
one hundred cents on the dollar. He return mail.
considered the letter ponderously. Two
Mr. Scanlon replied that although he
hundred, thousand dollars worth of these hated to carry such a sum on his person after bonds at a discount of thirty-three per cent,
dark in a city like New York, full of
would have netted him sixty-six thousand unscrupulous characters, he would abide by dollars, a very nice profit; but Stoddard was