While it was surprising to hear Mr. Barnard's na here, Jenkins felt he had learned enough. It was still class ti, after all, and he needed to bring this little interlude to a close.
But young Barnard, likely emboldened by Jenkins's praise, remained standing and went on.
"Actually, Miss Fabry's mining business is real. I was even planning on introducing it to my aunt recently..."
Whatever he said next was completely irrelevant. "Aunt," of course, referred to Mr. Barnard's widow. After losing the pillar of their family, life for a woman and her children was not easy, even with the Church's support.
To invest in Jenkins's scam now would almost certainly an a loss, and for a family in their position, it would be a devastating blow.
To say nothing of the fact that Jenkins would never allow himself to harm them. He would always rember who had saved his life and helped him find his place here on that sumr night. He could never forgive himself for taking so much as a single copper coin from them.
"Yes, I absolutely cannot let Mrs. Barnard get involved!"
He had to stop this from happening, and the best way, without a doubt, was to make her understand it was all a scam.
But then he rembered a night class where, despite his desperate hints, people had been blinded by the allure of profit. Jenkins couldn't guarantee that this woman he'd never t would believe his word, even with his current fa as a writer. And using his connections to the Church to warn her was still a significant risk.
"During the year-end festival, the Travelers' Bank isn't accepting large currency transactions. That ans to get all the investnts returned, it would take until at least the second week of January. In the anti, Mrs. Barnard could invest her money at any mont. When that happens, she'll lose more than just the account and transfer fees. And if I were to reimburse her losses personally, the records at the Travelers' Bank would stir up even bigger trouble."
He licked his lips, a thousand thoughts racing through his mind. The audience, both standing and seated, inside the classroom and out, began to wonder at Jenkins's silence.
"I can't count on persuading her in private, and I can't compensate her after the fact. The only way now is..."
But he had already borrowed ten thousand pounds from the account—the only sum of money he had ever withdrawn.
"Is my reputation more important, or is my debt to Mr. Barnard?"
He asked himself this silently as he looked out again at the densely packed audience below the lectern. Every eye was on him, hungry for him to say sothing more. The conflict between his gratitude and his reputation clashed in his heart like fire and water, searing his very soul.
"But this has nothing to do with my reputation, does it? After all, no one knows the truth. But I know. I know what I've done..."
He gazed at the faces watching him, each one trying to guess what he was thinking.
"I know I have done wrong. So let this guilt tornt . I will bear it all, but I absolutely will not harm Mr. Barnard's family. I am guilty, but I know that I am still a good person... Yes, that's it."
He raised a hand and gently pressed his right temple. He knew that, in essence, there was no difference between him returning the money and the police returning it. Therefore, rather than waiting for the right mont, it was ti to put an end to it all.
It felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart. He reached out and picked up the half-stick of chalk from the lectern once more.
"Both of you gentlen, please take your seats," he said. "I have heard about this business with Miss Fabry for quite so ti."
He took a deep breath. The night he and Mr. Barnard had faced the octopus monster flashed before his eyes.
"I, Jenkins Redemptor Williams..."
The mory of supporting each other in the Mysterious Realm also appeared before him. "...swear on my honor..."
And then, the dream of Mr. Barnard's soul, refusing to leave this world for the sake of his family.
A look of firm resolve settled on his face.
"Miss Fabry is a fraud!"
He practically roared the words.
"Listen to ! It's a scam! Absolutely do not invest any money in it! Do you hear ? Absolutely not! I swear to God, that woman is a fraud—she might not even be a woman! It's a simple con, and I've practically figured out the whole thing. Since you've brought it up here, then I will tell everyone, right here and now, everything!"
An uproar exploded through the room. In an instant, the quiet classroom transford into the busiest of market streets. Whether they knew who Miss Fabry was or not, Jenkins's declaration in such a public setting was absolutely stunning.
"Impossible!"
Such voices of disbelief rose from the crowd, especially from the young man who had just spoken. Jenkins suspected that when the boy got ho, he might even burn his copy of the Stranger's Story Collection. But Jenkins knew what he had to do.
"It's a rather simple spire-style fraud, designed to gather wealth from the bottom up. My father works in the Nolan mining industry—there is no Miss Fabry, nor is there a Fabry family! I would call this thod robbery, because it requires almost no capital! It all starts with just a few letters.
Now, please be quiet! Look here, and I will expose the entire truth of this simple fraud for all of you!"
The Travelers' Bank normally closed at six in the evening, but tonight, its doors remained open past eight. Citizens rushed into the bank, demanding to have their transfers recalled, but it was simply impossible.
Throngs of investors gathered in front of the bank, wailing and cursing. Even those who had already turned a profit now considered themselves victims of a scam. Onlookers who heard the news spread the story far and wide, drawing even more investors to the scene.
Just as they had irrationally poured their money in, they now began to irrationally demand their principal back. People are creatures of herd ntality. Even though most of them had not heard Jenkins's "lecture," and even though his entire argunt rested on the premise that "the mining business did not exist," the blindly-following crowd was convinced they were victims of a massive fraud.
This frenzy soon caught the attention of City Hall, and it wasn't long before KalFax Field intervened. The Church of Travelers had no local presence, so a full investigation and the freezing of all accounts under the na "Miss Fabry" was not completed until midnight.
In the course of their investigation, the police also discovered that there was, in fact, no "Miss Fabry." A different person had co to manage the accounts each ti. Therefore, Jenkins Williams had been correct; Miss Fabry was a fraud.
Reviews
All reviews (0)