"And
that explains something that puzzled us here in the bank, for many a day.
Wait a minute."
He left the room to return with a slip of paper. "Can you tell me the
exact date on which you cashed the draft?" he said to McGowan.
"It was the day after the funeral. I disremember the date, but 'twould
be easy to find."
The banker nodded, "Our books show that I paid you the money the
sixteenth. And here," he laid the slip of paper before them, "is a
deposit slip made out and signed by Judge Strong dated the seventeenth,
showing that on that date he deposited eight hundred and fifty dollars
in gold. That is what puzzled us, Mr. Matthews--that the Judge should
deposit that amount of gold, there being, you see so little gold handled
here. It makes it very easy to trace. I'll illustrate." He turned to
Mike. "Did you spend any more of the gold in Corinth?"
McGowan told him about paying the undertaker. After a moment the Colonel
triumphantly laid before them a deposit slip made out by the undertaker
dated a day later, showing an item of one hundred and forty dollars in
gold.
"You see," he said, "how easy it is."
"Colonel Dunwood," said Dan, "would this be sufficient evidence before a
jury to--" He hesitated.
The Colonel let fly another oath, "Yes sir, and before any jury you could
get together in this county it wouldn't take half this to send that
damned, long-faced, sniveling, hypocrite where he belongs. He is one of
our best customers, too, but I reckon this bank can get along without his
dirty money.
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