Even Graves, between whom and his client there was little in
common, felt the general sympathy.
At length the captain raised his head.
"Well," he said slowly, "we ain't children. We might as well call things
by their right names. 'Bije forged that certificate."
"I'm afraid there is no doubt of it."
"Dear! dear! dear! Why, they put folks in state's, prison for that!"
"Yes. But a dead man is beyond prisons."
"That's so. Then I don't see--"
"You will. You don't grasp the full meaning of this affair even yet.
If the Bradley certificate is a forgery, a fraud from beginning to end,
then the presumption is that there was never any such person as Bradley.
But SOMEONE paid ten thousand dollars for one hundred Akrae shares when
the company was formed. THAT certificate has never been turned in. Some
person or persons, somewhere, hold one hundred shares of Akrae Rubber
Company stock. Think, now! Suppose that someone turns up and demands all
that he has been cheated out of for the past seventeen years! Think of
that!"
"Well... I am thinkin' of it. I got the scent of what you was drivin'
at five minutes ago. And I don't see that we need to be afraid. He could
have put 'Bije in jail; but 'Bije is already servin' a longer sentence
than he could give him.
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