John Thorndykes Cases | Page 9

were about to be
discussed, I rose and prepared to withdraw; but Draper waved me back
into my chair.
"You need not go away, Dr. Jervis," he said. "It is through you that I
have the benefit of Dr. Thorndyke's help, and I know that you doctors
can be trusted to keep your own counsel and your clients' secrets. And
now for some confessions of mine. In the first place, it is my painful
duty to tell you that I am a discharged convict--an 'old lag,' as the cant
phrase has it."
He coloured a dusky red as he made this statement, and glanced
furtively at Thorndyke to observe its effect. But he might as well have
looked at a wooden figure-head or a stone mask as at my friend's
immovable visage; and when his communication had been

acknowledged by a slight nod, he proceeded:
"The history of my wrong-doing is the history of hundreds of others. I
was a clerk in a bank, and getting on as well as I could expect in that
not very progressive avocation, when I had the misfortune to make four
very undesirable acquaintances. They were all young men, though
rather older than myself, and were close friends, forming a sort of little
community or club. They were not what is usually described as 'fast.'
They were quite sober and decently-behaved young follows, but they
were very decidedly addicted to gambling in a small way, and they
soon infected me. Before long I was the keenest gambler of them all.
Cards, billiards, pool, and various forms of betting began to be the
chief pleasures of my life, and not only was the bulk of my scanty
salary often consumed in the inevitable losses, but presently I found
myself considerably in debt, without any visible means of discharging
my liabilities. It is true that my four friends were my chief--in fact,
almost my only--creditors, but still, the debts existed, and had to be
paid.
"Now these four friends of mine--named respectively Leach, Pitford,
Hearn, and Jezzard--were uncommonly clever men, though the full
extent of their cleverness was not appreciated by me until too late. And
I, too, was clever in my way, and a most undesirable way it was, for I
possessed the fatal gift of imitating handwriting and signatures with the
most remarkable accuracy. So perfect were my copies that the writers
themselves were frequently unable to distinguish their own signatures
from my imitations, and many a time was my skill invoked by some of
my companions to play off practical jokes upon the others. But these
jests were strictly confined to our own little set, for my four friends
were most careful and anxious that my dangerous accomplishment
should not become known to outsiders.
"And now follows the consequence which you have no doubt foreseen.
My debts, though small, were accumulating, and I saw no prospect of
being able to pay them. Then, one night, Jezzard made a proposition.
We had been playing bridge at his rooms, and once more my ill luck
had caused me to increase my debt. I scribbled out an IOU, and pushed

it across the table to Jezzard, who picked it up with a very wry face,
and pocketed it.
"'Look here, Ted,' he said presently, 'this paper is all very well, but, you
know, I can't pay my debts with it. My creditors demand hard cash.'
"'I'm very sorry,' I replied, 'but I can't help it.'
"'Yes, you can,' said he, 'and I'll tell you how.' He then propounded a
scheme which I at first rejected with indignation, but which, when the
others backed him up, I at last allowed myself to be talked into, and
actually put into execution. I contrived, by taking advantage of the
carelessness of some of my superiors at the bank, to get possession of
some blank cheque forms, which I filled up with small amounts--not
more than two or three pounds--and signed with careful imitations of
the signatures of some of our clients. Jezzard got some stamps made for
stamping on the account numbers, and when this had been done I
handed over to him the whole collection of forged cheques in
settlement of my debts to all of my four companions.
"The cheques were duly presented--by whom I do not know; and
although, to my dismay, the modest sums for which I had drawn them
had been skilfully altered into quite considerable amounts, they were
all paid without demur excepting one. That one, which had been altered
from three pounds to thirty-nine, was drawn upon an account which
was already slightly overdrawn. The cashier became suspicious; the
cheque was impounded, and the client communicated with. Then, of
course, the mine exploded. Not only was this particular forgery
detected, but inquiries were set