"I see!" returned the notary, amiably, showing no surprise. He called a cheery "Good night!" when he left them at the tavern door.

Landlord Files gave them a room with two beds. Without making any bones of the thing, Examiner Starr pushed his bed across the door and then turned in and snored with the abandon of one who had relieved himself of the responsibility of keeping vigil.

CHAPTER XVI

LOOKED AT SQUARELY

The bank examiner and the cashier were down early to breakfast.

Starr had slept well and was vigorously alert. Vaniman was haggard and visibly worried. Both of them were reticent.

Vaniman felt that he had nothing to say, as matters stood.

Starr was thinking, rather than talking. He snapped up Files when the landlord meekly inquired whether there were any clews. Files retreated in a panic.

"Vaniman," said the examiner, when they pulled on their coats under the alligator's gaping espionage, "this is going to be my busy day and I hope you feel like pitching into this thing with me, helping to your utmost."

"You can depend on me, Mr. Starr."

"I don't intend to bother you with any questions at present except to ask about the routine business of the bank. So you can have your mind free on that point."

They went to the bank and relieved Britt.

"Go get your breakfast and come back here as soon as you can," Starr commanded, plunging into matters with the air of the sole captain of the craft. "And call a meeting of the directors."

The examiner had brought a brief-case along with him from the tavern.

He pulled out a card. Britt winced when he saw what was printed on the card.

THIS BANK CLOSED

pending examination of resources and liabilities and

auditing of accounts. Per order STATE BANK EXAMINERS.

Mr. Starr ordered Britt to tack that card on the outer door.

"Isn't there any other way but this?" asked the president.

"There's nothing else to be done--certainly not! I'm afraid the inst.i.tution is in a bad way, Britt. You say you have been calling regular loans in order to build up a cash reserve--and your cash isn't in sight. I reckon it means that the stockholders will be a.s.sessed the full hundred per cent of liability."

He bolted the bank door behind the president.

"Now, Vaniman, did you find out anything sensible about those books, as far as you got last evening?"

"Only that the accounts seem to have been willfully tangled up."

"Then we'll let that part of the thing hang. Get out letters to depositors, calling in all pa.s.s books."

After Vaniman had set himself down to that task, Starr went about his business briskly. He prepared telegrams and sent his charioteer to put them on the wire at Levant. Those messages were intended to set in operation the state police, a firm of licensed auditors, the security company which had bonded the bank's officials, the insurance corporation which guaranteed the Egypt Trust Company against loss by burglars. Then Starr proceeded with the usual routine of examination as conducted when banks are going concerns.

For the next few days Egypt was on the map.

Ike Jones was obliged to put extra pungs on to his stage line for the accommodation of visitors who included accountants, newspaper reporters, insurance men, and security representatives.

Finally, so far as Starr's concern was involved, the affairs of the Egypt Trust Company were shaken down into something like coherence. The apparent errors in the books, when they had been checked by pa.s.s books and notes and securities, were resolved into a mere wanton effort to mix things up.

Mr. Starr took occasion to rea.s.sure Miss Harnden in regard to those books; during the investigation the girl had been working with Vaniman in the usual double-hitch arrangement which had prevailed before the day of the disaster. The two plodded steadily, faithfully, silently, under the orders of the examiner.

"Now that I've seen you at work, Miss Harnden, I eliminate carelessness and stupidity as the reasons for the books being as they are. That's the way I'm going at this thing--by the process of elimination. I'm going to say more! I'm eliminating you as being consciously responsible for any of the wrongdoing in this bank. That's about as far as I've got in the matter of elimination." He thumped his fist on a ledger. "It looks to me as if somebody had started to put something over by mixing these figures and had been tripped before finishing the job."

Then Mr. Starr, as if to show his appreciation of a worthy young woman whom he had treated in rather cavalier fashion at their first meeting, made her clerk to the receiver; the receiver was Almon Waite, an amiable old professor of mathematics, retired, who had come back to Egypt to pa.s.s his last days with his son. Examiner Starr, having taken it upon himself to put the Egypt Trust case through, had found in Professor Waite a handy sort of a soft rubber stamp.

Every afternoon, day by day, Starr had remarked casually to Vaniman, "Seeing that we have so many things to talk over, you'd better lodge with me at the hotel to-night!" And daily Vaniman agreed without a flicker of an eyelid. In view of the fact that both of them kept sedulously off the bank business after hours, there was a perfect understanding between the examiner and the cashier as to what this espionage meant. And Vaniman knew perfectly well just why a chap named Bixby was in town!

Having a pretty good knowledge of Starr's general opinions and prejudices, the cashier had squared himself to meet things as they came along. Once or twice Starr gave the young man an opportunity to come across with explanations or defense. Vaniman kept silent.

The cashier explained his sentiments to Vona. "It's mighty little ammunition I've got, dear! All I can do now is to keep it dry, and wait till I can see the whites of the enemy's eyes."

He refrained from any comment on the ident.i.ty of the enemy. He did not need to name names to Vona. The att.i.tude of Tasper Britt, who kept by himself in his own office; who offered not one word of suggestion or explanation or consolation; who surveyed Vaniman, when the two met at the tavern, with the reproachful stare of the benefactor who had been betrayed--Britt's att.i.tude was sufficiently significant. Vaniman was waiting to see what Britt would do in the crisis that was approaching.

"At any rate, I must keep silent until I'm directly accused, Vona. Starr is regularly talking with Britt. If I begin now to defend myself by telling about Britt's operations, I'll merely be handing weapons to the enemy. They can't surprise me by any charge they may bring! I have got myself stiffened up to that point. You must make up your mind that it's coming. Pile up courage beforehand!"

It was a valiant little speech. But he was obliged to strive heroically to make his countenance fit his words of courage. In facing the situation squarely he had been trying to make an estimate of the state of mind in Egypt. He bitterly decided that the folks were lining up against the outlander. As hateful as Britt had made himself, he was Egyptian, born and bred. Vaniman knew what the wreck of the little bank signified in that town, which was already staggering under its debt burden. How that bank had been wrecked was not clear to Vaniman, even when he gave the thing profound consideration. He did not dare to declare to himself all that he suspected of the president. Nor did he dare to believe that Britt would dump the whole burden on the cashier.

However, if Britt undertook such a play of perfidy, the outlander knew that the native would have the advantage in the exchange of accusation.

Vaniman perceived the existing state of affairs in the demeanor of the men whom he met on the street, going to and from the tavern. He heard some of their remarks. He strove to keep a calm face while his soul burned!

Then, at last, Examiner Starr acted. He employed peculiar methods to fit a peculiar case.

One afternoon Starr sat and stared for some time at Vaniman. They were alone in the bank. Receiver Waite and Vona had gone away.

"Would you relish a little show?" inquired the examiner.

Vaniman had nerved himself against all kinds of surprise, he thought, but he was not prepared for this proffer of entertainment. He frankly declared that he did not understand.

"Seeing that you are doubtful, we'll have the show, anyway, and you can tell me later whether or not you relish it." He opened the door and called. Bixby came in. It was evident that Bixby had been waiting.

"All ready!" said Starr.

"All right!" said Bixby.

"I'll say that Bixby, here, is an operator from a detective agency, in case you don't know it," explained the examiner.

"I do know it, sir!"

Bixby pulled off his overcoat. Under it he wore a mohair office coat. He yanked off that garment, ripped the sleeves, tore the back breadth, and threw the coat under a stool. Then he secured a dustcloth from a hook, produced a small vial of chloroform, and poured some of the liquid on the cloth. He poured more of the chloroform on his hair and his vest.