Page 60 of A Foolish Endeavor

Mr. Gordon’s face went from white to red as he defended himself. “I, a thief? You accuse me of cheating? How dare you! Why, I have managed this store for Mr. Slade for going on six years, and he has full confidence in me, I assure you!”

“He might have before,” Evan said. “However, once we show him how you have been cheating him during his illness, I am quite certain changes will be made.”

“You have no proof,” Mr. Gordon said, loftily. “Who is making these outrageous claims—that foolish little daughter of his, Miss Nancy? Likely her accusations are based on her misunderstanding of the numbers, for I am certain she has little or no ability to perceive these ledgers.”

“Perhaps not, but my son is quite excellent at mathematics and he has spent many hours, these past days, going over the books. It seems your sales have dropped considerably during the precise same time as Mr. Slade has been unwell. Such a decrease in income was not seen in the previous three years at this same time.”

“Am I to blame if sales should suddenly go down? ’Tis an aberration at best and, no doubt, will be more than made up for after the harvest comes in. Some of your own tenant farmers are clearly holding back on their purchases until then. That is no proof of theft.”

At a nod from his father, Gilbert picked up the ledger and opened it to the pages for the month of July. “But this is,” he said, firmly. “For my father and I are very aware that you sold my sister-in-law, Mrs. Kendall, a costly silver baby’s brush set for a gift. I have scoured the list of sales for that entire month and it is not recorded there. Clearly, you pocketed the money yourself, hoping it would go unnoticed. No doubt, there were many other such occasions to do so, accounting for the overall lower sales for this summer.”

A sheen of perspiration now appeared on Mr. Gordon’s thin face. “A simple mistake, is all—I must have forgotten to record it. I’m certain the money is all in the safe box here. We can count it. It was only a—”

“It was only a plan he thought he’d get away with, that is all!” a female voice cried as the door to the small room flew open. The three men turned to see Mrs. Brecks leveling a finger at her manager. “He done it. Oh, he done it for certain, Mr. Kendall—I seen him steal more than once. He’d take the cash from a sale and set it aside, then, when the customer was gone, into his own pocket it would go, and no writing in the ledger, neither! When I asked him about it, he threatened to fire me if I spoke a word to anyone. Said he’d slip me a little somethin’ extra in my pay packet if I kept me mouth shut, too.” She turned an anguished face to Evan. “I wanted to go to Mr. Slade and tell him, sir, but Mr. Gordon said he’d put the blame all on me if I did and who would believe me? I’d get the sack for certain, and I cannot afford to be losing my job. My husband is poorly, you see, and I have to work to put bread on our table.”

“Would you be willing to testify in court to the actions of Mr. Gordon?” At her nod, Evan turned back to glare at the manager. “How much did you steal, man? Be honest, or I shall spread word of your thievery all over town and ask the citizens of Doddington to recollect all the purchases this summer so we might see what others were not recorded into the ledger.”

“It was… only ten pounds and six,” Mr. Gordon said in a deflated voice. “I only did it so I might pay off a few debts. The dice have not been lucky for me of late.”

“You lost ten and six on gambling? Is it all gone, then? You cannot pay any of it back?” asked Gilbert, horrified at the amount.

“No, sir. That is—I did use it to pay my gambling debt, but… I have a bit of personal coin saved up and… I will make it good.” He raised anxious eyes to the Kendalls. “I shan’t ever do it again, you have my word.”

Evan nodded in satisfaction. “Go home at once and collect the money you owe and bring it back.” He turned to the clerk. “Mrs. Brecks, can you manage things here while he is absent?”

She gave a sniff. “I can, indeed, sir. Truth be told, I do most of the work around here, at any rate.”

“Very well. Return to the front of the shop, now, if you please. There are likely customers to attend to.” Evan glared at Mr. Gordon. “Well? Be off and get the money. My son and I shall wait here for you, so make haste. Then, we shall go over the accounts and see if all is as it should be.”

“Will I… lose my job, sir?” Mr. Gordon asked in a quavering voice.

“If it were up to me, you would be sacked at once. The final decision will be up to Mr. Slade, of course. You must hope he is of a forgiving nature.”

“Mr. Slade is out of his wits, from what I hear. He hardly knows his own name,” Mr. Gordon sneered.

“Miss Slade has authorized me to act on her family’s behalf,” Gilbert spoke up. “Indeed, she has asked me to not only bring these accounts into order, but to bring back to her home all the proceeds you have kept here in the store during her father’s absence. For truly, I would not trust you not to empty the safe and abscond with the lot. Now, go—be off with you and retrieve the money you stole!”

Mr. Gordon grabbed his hat and slunk out of the office, mumbling a “Yes, sir,” on his way.

Gilbert and his father sat on the chairs to await his return.

“Perhaps I ought to have followed him, Father,” Gilbert said, after a few minutes. “He might pack up and run off, after all. Then we are out all the money he stole.”

“If he does, I shall make up the loss,” Evan said. “However, I do believe he will return with the money as an act of good faith so that he may grovel for his job.”

“Nancy will be so happy. I cannot wait to tell her. She will be quite upset over the scheme to rob her, though.”

“Tell me—has she authorized you to act on her behalf, as you told that scoundrel?”

Gilbert grinned sheepishly. “Not precisely. I only said it because I thought it sounded good and would add some weight to our demands.”

“As it did. Most clever of you, son—well done.”

Mr. Gordon did return with the money, and after a good hour or two of reviewing the books, Evan and Gilbert were convinced that the ten pounds, six shillings was all that was missing. They emptied the safe of all the money from the prior weeks and warned the manager that his future at the sundries shop would be decided soon.

Then, they went to the Slade home and explained to Nancy all that had been taking place. While horrified at the would-be theft, she was so grateful that she threw her arms around Evan and kissed his cheek. His face turned bright red from embarrassment, which caused them all to break out in laughter. Nancy kept thanking them over and over, saying how she did not know how she might have managed if not for them.

“Your son, Mr. Kendall, has been of the greatest use to me that I could ever imagine. I will be forever grateful to him, and to you, for helping me during Papa’s illness.”