United States or Chile ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Stires had shut up his junk-shop for a time and stayed strictly at home. I went to see him, the day after they found her. His face was drawn and gloomy, but it was the face of a man in his right mind. I think his worst time was that hour after Follet had followed Ching Po out of his warehouse.
He had seen curious places and amusing things, and could cap most adventures with something relevant; but his type and temperament prevented him from being a "good mixer," and he was not popular. Stires, however, had his own grievance, and his judgment of Schneider went deep.
"Not on your life," I said, and jammed it well into my pocket. "What in hell have you got to do with it?" he snarled. "Stires is a friend of mine." I spoke with some difficulty, for though we were not running, we were hitting up a quick pace. Follet was all colors of the rainbow, and I looked for him to give out presently, but he kept on. "Ching Po, too?" he sneered. "Not a bit of it.
It might not be fair to punish Cowperwood for seizing with avidity upon a splendid chance to get rich quick, they thought; but it certainly was not worth while to throw a veil of innocence over such palpable human cupidity. Finally, both lawyers were through with Stener for the time being, anyhow, and then Albert Stires was called to the stand.
Albert was still connected with the city treasury, as was Stener, and engaged with Sengstack and another personal appointee of Mollenhauer's in going over the treasurer's books and explaining their financial significance. Stires had come to Cowperwood primarily to get additional advice in regard to the sixty-thousand-dollar check and his personal connection with it.
Shannon now came to the vital transaction of October 9th, when Cowperwood called on Stener and secured the check for sixty thousand dollars from Albert Stires. It was plain larceny, stealing, and Cowperwood knew it when he asked Stires for the check. Think of the colossal nerve of the man the Machiavellian subtlety of his brain. He knew he was going to fail.
"What did Ching Po tell you and Stires?" "Don't you know?" Sheer surprise looked out at me from his eyes. "Of course, I think I know. Do you really want to tear the place up, looking for her?" "It's not that!" he shouted. "If it had been, every one would have known it long since. Ching Po got it out of old Dubois. I shook Dubois out of his opium long enough to confirm it. I had to threaten him.
On the whole, I think we were more sensible. I don't think any man's hospitality would have ranked him permanently on Naapu if his dinners had been uneatable. Though perhaps to be frank drinks counted more than food as a measuring-rod of aristocracy. Well, Follet trained with the people who received consignments of champagne and good whiskey. And Stires did not.
Cowperwood went out into his general office and without his knowledge or consent persuaded his chief clerk and secretary, Mr. Albert Stires, to give him a check for sixty thousand dollars, to which he was not entitled and on which he, Stener, would have stopped payment if he had known. "What nonsense! Why didn't he know? The books were there, open to him. Mr.
Stires testified that he recalled Cowperwood's saying that he had purchased the certificates, that he was entitled to the money, that Stener was unduly frightened, and that no harm would come to him, Albert. He identified certain memoranda in the city treasurer's books, which were produced, as being accurate, and others in Cowperwood's books, which were also produced, as being corroborative.
Word Of The Day