BARBARA ENGAGES COUNSEL
Bidding a hasty good morning to the elevator girl, Harry Kent, suit-case in hand, entered the cage and was carried up to the fourth floor of the Wilkins Building.Several business acquaintances stopped to chat with him as he walked down the corridor to his office, and it was fully fifteen minutes before he turned the knob of the door bearing the firm name - ROCHESTER ANDKENT, ATTORNEYS - on its glass panel.As he stepped inside the anteroom which separated the two offices occupied respectively by him and his senior partner, Philip Rochester, a stranger rose from the clerk's desk.
"Yes, sir?" he asked interrogatively.
Kent eyed him in surprise."Mr.Rochester here? " he inquired.
"No, sir.It am in charge of the office.""You are!" Kent's surprise increased."I happen to be Mr.Kent, junior partner in this firm.""I beg your pardon, sir." The dapper clerk bowed and hurrying to his desk took up a letter."Mr.Rochester left this for you, Mr.
Kent, before his departure last night."
"His departure!" Kent deposited his suit-case on one of the chairs and tore open the envelope.The note was a scrawl, which he had some difficulty in deciphering.
"Dear Kent," it ran."Am called out of town; will be back Saturday.
Saunders gave me some of his cheek this afternoon, so I fired him.
I engaged John Sylvester to fill his place, who comes highly recommended.He will report for work to-morrow.Ta-ta - PHIL."Kent thrust the note into his pocket and picked up his suit-case.
"Mr.Rochester states that he has engaged you," he said."Your references -?""Here, sir." The clerk handed him a folded paper, and Kent ran his eyes down the sheet from the sentence: "To whom it may concern"to the signature, Clark Hildebrand.The statement spoke in high terms of John Sylvester, confidential clerk.
"I can refer you to my other employers, Mr.Kent," Sylvester volunteered as the young lawyer stood regarding the paper."If you, desire further information there is Mr.Clymer and -""No, Judge Hildebrand'S recommendation is sufficient." And at Kent's smile the clerk's anxious expression vanished."Did Mr.Rochester give you any outline of the work?""Yes, sir; he told me to file the papers in the Hitchcock case, and attend to the morning correspondence.""Very good.Has any one called this morning?""No, sir.These letters were addressed to you personally, and Ihave not opened them," Sylvester handed a neatly arranged package to Kent."These," indicating several letters lying open on his desk, "are to the firm.""Bring them to me in half an hour," and Kent walked into his private office, carefully closing the door behind him.Opening his suit-case he took out his brief bag and laid it on the desk in front of him together with the package of letters.Instead of opening the letters immediately, he tilted back in his chair and regarded the opposite wall in deep thought.Philip Rochester could not have selected a worse time to absent himself; three important cases were on the calendar for immediate trial and much depended on the firm's successful handling of them.Kent swore softly under his breath;his last warning to Rochester, that he would dissolve their partnership if the older man continued to neglect his practice, had been given only a month before and upon Kent's return from eight months' service in the Judge Advocate General's Department in France.
Apparently his warning had fallen on deaf ears and Rochester was indulging in another periodic spree, for so Kent concluded, recalling the unsteady penmanship of the note handed to him by the new clerk, John Sylvester.
Kent was still frowning at the opposite wall when a faint knock sounded, and at his call Sylvester entered.
"Here are the letters received this morning, sir, and type-written copies of the answers to yesterday's correspondence which Mr.
Rochester dictated before leaving," Sylvester explained as he placed the papers on Kent's desk."If you will o.k.them, I will mail them at once."Kent went through the letters with care, and the new clerk rose in his estimation as he read the excellent dictation of the clearly typed answers.
"These will do admirably," he announced."Sit down and I will reply to the other letters."At the end of an hour Sylvester closed his stenographic note book and collected the correspondence, by that time scattered over Kent's desk.
"I'll have these notes ready for your signature before lunch," he said as he picked up a newspaper from the floor where it had tumbled during Kent's search for some particu1ar letter heads."I brought in the morning paper, sir; thought perhaps you had not seen it.""Thanks." Kent swung his chair nearer the window and opened the newspaper.He had purchased a copy when walking through Union Station on his arrival, but had left it in the cafeteria where he had snatched a cup of coffee and hot rolls before hurrying to his office.
He read a column devoted to international affairs, scanned an account of a senatorial wrangle, and was about to turn to the second page, whistling cheerily, when his attention was arrested by the headings:
BANK CASHIER DIES IN POLICE COURT
JAMES TURNBULL, MISTAKEN FOR BURGLAR, SUFFERS FATAL ATTACK OF ANGINA PECTORISKent's whistle stopped abruptly, and clutching the paper in both hands, he devoured the short account printed under the scare heads:
"While masquerading as a burglar on a wager, James Turnbull, cashier of the Metropolis Trust Company, was arrested by Officer O'Ryan at an early hour yesterday morning in the residence of Colonel Charles McIntyre.
"Officer O'Ryan conducted his prisoner to the 8th Precinct Police Station, and later he was arraigned in the police court.The Misses McIntyre appeared in person to prefer the charges against the supposed burglar, who, on being sworn, gave the name of John Smith.
