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Dick Prescott's Third Year at West Point, a fiction by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 8. A Father's Just Wrath Strikes |
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_ CHAPTER VIII. A FATHER'S JUST WRATH STRIKES A very few minutes later a knock sounded at the door. Then Bert Dodge entered very abruptly, his tongue starting with the turning off the knob. "Well, have you seen the mucker Prescott?" called Bert airily. "Was he scared to-----" Here Bert caught sight of the two West Pointers and stopped short, while his father entered behind him. "No," broke in Holmes, dryly, "Prescott wasn't even scared silly." "Oh, you shut up, you two!" growled Bert. "Mr. Griffin, what are these pieces of airy nothing doing here?" "That advice about preserving silence will very well apply to you, also, Mr. Bert Dodge," rejoined the lawyer. "Take a seat in the background, please. I want to talk with your father." "What's the matters" demanded Bert, not taking a seat, but advancing and leaning against the top of the lawyer's desk. "Has this fellow won you over with a lot of his smooth talk?" "Mr. Griffin I warned you that Prescott is a most accomplished liar." Instead of flaring up at this insult, Dick merely turned to exchange amused smiles with Holmes. At this moment the attorney was paying no heed to Bert, but was placing a chair courteously for the elder Dodge. "Now, Mr. Dodge," began the lawyer, speaking rapidly and paying heed only to the father, "I am very glad that I insisted on seeing Mr. Prescott before going further in the case that you placed with me. I expected only a denial. I have, instead, been astounded. Now, listen, sir, while I tell you the all but incredible story." Thereupon Lawyer Griffin launched into a swift narration of the story told by Dick Prescott and Dr. Carter. As soon as Bert Dodge began to get wind of what it was all about, his face became ghastly. "Stop right here, Griffin!" commanded Bert. "This is all a tissue of lies that have been sprung upon you." "Silence, young man!" commanded the lawyer sternly. "This talk is between your father and myself. As for you, young man, remember to what you have sworn, and bear in mind that the upshot of it all for you may yet be a term of years in the penitentiary." As the lawyer went on talking there could not be a moment's suspicion that the elder Dodge had been concerned in the plot of perjury. Mr. Dodge had been guilty only of believing his son and of sharing the latter's feigned indignation. "Now, Dr. Carter has confirmed all of this over the 'phone, and he assured me that Dr. Davidson stood ready to add his testimony," wound up Lawyer Griffin. "Mr. Dodge, what is to be done?" "Why," stammered Bert's father, "we---we shall have to drop the whole case." "What?" raged Bert, his face going purple with anger. "Drop the case on any such stacked-up mess of lies? Father, are you losing all the nerve you ever had?" "Young man," broke in Lawyer Griffin severely, "you do not appear to have the slightest idea of values. I do not for a moment imagine that your father will go any further in this matter. If he does, it will be necessary for him to get another attorney." "Why!" challenged Bert, glaring at the lawyer. "Because the outcome of this case, if it reached court, would be your indictment for conspiracy and the subornation of perjury. The latter is one of the most heinous crimes known to the law." "But I tell you this is all a tissue of lies trumped up against me!" stormed young Dodge. While this conversation was going on Dick and Greg remained silent in their seats. They had no need to talk. They were enjoying it all too much just as it was going. "Do you expect, Dodge, that a court and a jury would take your unsupported word against the testimony of two such men as Dr. Carter and the Rev. Mr. Davidson? Do you imagine, for a moment, that Fessenden and your other tools wouldn't become utterly frightened and confess to everything against you? Do you imagine that anything you could do or say would save you, Dodge, from going to the penitentiary for ten or fifteen years?" The attorney's cool, incisive manner brought Bert Dodge to his senses. A deathly fear assailed him. His knees began to shake. "The case is too well fixed against me," he replied hoarsely. "Ye---es, I guess you had better drop it all." The elder Dodge now sprang to his feet. "Drop it, you young scoundrel?" he yelled at his son. "Why did you ever drag me into any such infamous piece of business? I went into this believing that you told me the truth." "I---I did, sir," stammered Bert. "Bah, you are a perjurer, you young villain!" raged his father. "Griffin, this matter cannot go a step further. You will destroy those miserable affidavits before my eyes!" "I am sorry, Mr. Dodge," replied the lawyer, "but I am not at liberty to do that." "You can't destroy the affidavits?" howled Bert, his voice breaking. "Why not! Aren't you our lawyer?" "I am even more an officer of the court than I am anyone's attorney," replied Mr. Griffin gravely. "A lawyer has no right to conceal a crime when he knows one has been committed not even to save his own clients." "Wh---what do you propose to do, Griffins?" demanded the elder Dodge, shaking. "Why, I hope to save your worthless son from prosecution, Mr. Dodge," returned the lawyer. "But a crime has been committed, in that your son procured others to swear to false affidavits True, the affidavits have not yet been presented in court, and on that I base my hope that the matter will not have to go further. But I feel in honor bound to submit the facts to the district attorney, and to be governed by his instructions." "You are going to try to send me to jail?" gasped Dodge, clutching at the ledge of a bookcase to save himself from falling. "I am going to try to persuade the district attorney to let the matter drop," replied Griffin. "It will be the district attorney's decision that will govern the matter." "Then what are you doing fooling around here, governor?" screamed Bert hoarsely. "Don't you see that it's your job to hurry to the district attorney as fast as you can go? Use your money, your political influence---" In his extreme terror young Dodge seemed to forget that he was providing amusement for his enemies. But Mr. Dodge cut in quickly. Advancing a step or two, he brought his uplifted stick down sharply, once, across his son's shoulders. With a snarl Bert wheeled, crouching as though to spring upon his father. Prescott and Holmes jumped up, prepared to step in. But the banker was not cowed by the evil look in his son's face. "Begone, you young villain!" quivered the old man. "Get out of my sight. Never let me see you again. Don't dare to go to what was once your home, or I'll have you thrown out. I disown you! You are no blood of mine!" "I guess you forget," sneered Bert cunningly that you are responsible for me, and that you will have to pay my bills." "Not a penny of them," retorted the banker sternly. "It is you who forget that you reached the age of twenty-one just three days ago. You are your own master, sir---and your own provider! Now, go---and never again let any of your family hear from the scoundrel who has disgraced us all." Vainly Bert opened his mouth, trying to speak. The words would not come. His father again advancing threateningly, Bert edged towards the door. "This looks like your fun, as it is your work, Dick Prescott!" snarled the wretch. "Wait! If it takes me ten years I'll make you suffer for this!" Crash! Mr. Dodge had again raised his cane to strike the young man. But Bert had pulled open the door, closing it after him as he fled, and only the plate-glass panel stopped the fall of the cane. "I'll pay for the damage done to your door Griffin," promised the banker. "Don't worry about that, sir," nodded the attorney. "I feel that we've been here long enough, gentlemen," broke in Cadet Prescott, as he and Greg rose. "Mr. Dodge, I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am that this scene was necessary." "I feel sure of your sympathy. Prescott, and of yours, too, Holmes. Thank you both," replied the banker. "You are both fine, manly young fellows. I wish I had been favored with a son like either of you. Now, I have no son!" Dick and Greg got away as unobtrusively as they could. Bert Dodge did try to go home to see his Mother, but, by his father's orders, he was put out of the house by two men servants. Immediately after that Bert vanished from Gridley. At first he tried the effect of writing whining, penitent, begging letters home. Receiving no replies, Bert finally drifted off into the space of the wide world. Later on in the course of these chronicles he may reappear. Lawyer Griffin consulted with the district attorney, and it was decided not to make perjury cases out of the affair. Fessenden, Bettrick and Deevers, however, were all three warned and the district attorney filed away the lying affidavits, in case a use for them should ever come up. By degrees the story of Bert Dodge's latest infamy leaked out. The news, however, did not come through any word spread by either of our young West Pointers. _ |
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