The Mystery of the Steel Disc

The Mystery of the Steel Disc
by Broughton Brandenburg

The telephone bell in the outer office rang, and opening the switch at
the side of my desk I took up my stand-'phone and answered:
"Hello. Well?"
"Hello, is this Duncan & Betts?" inquired a man's voice with a slight
foreign accent.
"Yes."
"I want to speak wit' Mister Lawrence Duncan."
"This is Mr. Duncan. What can I do for you?"
"T'is is Mr. Martin Anderson of 196 Gramercy Park. Yust now while I
was eating my breakwast in my rooms over my real estate office, I was
called to my telephone by Mr. George Rhodes, who is in t'e Municipal
Bank. He is a young man who wants to marry my daughter Marie, and
he called me up to tell me t'at when he opened t'e wault a little while
ago he found t'at since he closed it t'e night before a package wit' more
t'an a million dollars in bonds was gone. He is responsible for t'e wault
and no one else, and he called me up to tell me, and say he did not take
it, to tell Marie t'at, but he wit'drew his request for her hand. Now, t'en,
Mr. Duncan, I don't care one tam about him, but my daughter must not
be made to come in in t'is case wit' t'e noos-papers or t'e gossip, so I
want you to go over to t'e bank and see him and help him out in every
way, yust so he keep his mout' shut about Marie, and if t'ey lock him up
I want t'at she don't get to see him or no such foolishness. I send you
my check for five hundred t'is morning, and I want to know all about
what you do, at my house to-night. Will you do it?"

"Yes, I will go over at once," I answered.
"T'at is all, Good-by --"
"Thank you. Good-by. I will call this evening."
"Good-by, Mr. Duncan."
My first impression as I hung up the receiver was a thrill at being thus
thrust into the centre of what appeared to be one of the biggest cases
which had transpired in years. My second was a pleasurable recognition
of the crisp, direct, clear, and ample statement of the matter which the
old real estate man had made. It had all been done in two minutes or
less. It is not often that we lawyers encounter people outside of our own
and the newspaper profession who can state anything so concisely and
not lose any value in it.
At this moment, Betts, my partner, and the stenographer came in, so I
hurried over to the Municipal Bank.
Business was just beginning for the day. I could see at a glance over the
men behind the brass screens that they as a whole did not as yet know
that the bank was a loser by a million. The cashier's door was open, and
he was just smoothing out his morning mail in the calmest of manners.
No one looked up as I entered; that showed normal state of mind
among the clerks.
I asked for Mr. George Rhodes, and a tall, broad shouldered, clean-cut
young chap came forward from a desk in the extreme rear of the place
and took my card through the bars. Even with the slight view I could
get of his face, I perceived he was pale and haggard. He opened a side
door and admitted me to the anteroom of the directors' chamber. I told
him I had come in his interest, retained by Mr. Anderson, and stated my
client's reason for sending me, namely, to prevent his daughter's name
from being mentioned in the matter at any or all times, and asked the
young man what I could do for him.
He had been sitting running his thumb nail precisely along the edge of

my card, and now he looked up and said, in a dull, expressionless way:
"Really, Mr. Duncan, I have thought the matter over carefully, and
there is nothing to do."
He seemed so numbed and hopeless that I was amused.
"You surprise me, Mr. Rhodes," I said. "Surely a thing like this can not
in itself shut off any action. In the first place, give me the facts. We will
see what can be done."
"The facts are few enough," he answered, simply. "The bonds were in a
package four inches thick. They were '90 government fours, clipped
and worth one million two hundred thousand when entered the first of
the month, three weeks ago. They were marked with a typewritten slip
on the end and lay in the securities compartment of the vault. Last night,
with the assistant cashier and the receiving teller, as is our rule here, I