THE CROSSED CHEQUE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4563, 8 December 1882, Page 4

THE CROSSED CHEQUE.

{Truth.} Mr Sergeant Walham was, as the phrase goes, a " lawyer pure and simple." But aa for asserting that his character was in any especial degree remarkablo for "purity" or 11 simplicity," that is a statement which I •hould not like to make, nor would the Serjeant have been nattered to hear mo. Ho was • tall, spare, hatohet-faoed man with a nose like the beak of a hawk, and an eye that possessed no little of the hawk's sharpness of •vision. His cheeks were close Bhaven and his head was olose-oropped, which, added to a jaunty, sprightly manner, made him appear muoh younger than he really was, and he had, furthermore, the good fortune to possess a tongue whioh, without being exaotly eloquent — in the ore rotundo stylo of rhetoric — was nevertheless remarkably well fitted to say anything the Serjeant wished to say— more particularly if the thing in question happened to be unpleasant. He was now nearly seventy years old, and from the age of two and twenty, when ho had first gone bb pupil to a pleader's ohambers, he had given his whole mind to his profession to tho exclusion of all other subjects— politics, literature, and even social intercourse—except, indeed, ia so far bb eooial intercourse can be turned—as the pushing and not too sjorupnlous lawyer knew well how to turn it — to the advancement of professional purposes. And, as he had been true to the law, so the law had been true to him, as usually happens in suoh cases. For many years now ho had had m great deal more business than he was always able to attend to satisfactorily — satisfactorily, that is to say, to his clients ; for I never heard that ho himself waß wont to express any morbid discontent with his performances. But although the attorneys would occasionally grumble, because he could not always be (though he yery often was, to judgo by the newspaper reports) in two or three Courts nt the same time, yet thoy came to his chambers again arrl again, and paid him heavy fees— for this very sufficient reason, if for no othor, that ho would not take small ones. Thus the Serjeant was in a fair way to prow rich. It is, however, only right to say that in this laudable enterprise he was very greatly aided by his clerk, Mr Tonford. Mr Tonford wob an ideal olerk — faithful, honest, industrious, but, above all, desperately sharp. He was acoHstomed in conversation — as is the wont of his prof easion generally— to identify himself with his employer. It wbb, "We are in the Privy Counoil to-day." " Wednesday we are in the Court of Appeal." " Thursday we go special to Liverpool." Indeed, on one occasion he was heard to account for the Serjeant's absence from Chambers— thus : *• Well, Bir, you see, the fact is we are marrying our eldest daughter this morning." But, some slight oddity notwithstanding, Mr Tonford was a firßt-rate clerk, and be it fluid, for the benefit of those who don't know, that in a barrister's business a good clerk is half the battle. The business of a counsol learned in the law is a very peculiar one. He has no legal claim for his fee, and, on the other hand, if he neglects the case which he has been rotained to oonduot, his client can bring no action against him for his negligence. These mutual disadvantages may be considered in some sort to balance each other ; but still the position is a very delicate one. Tho strict rule of the profession is that the fee should be paid when the brief is delivered ; but many attorneys only pay twice a year, some only once a year, some only if they win, and some, alas ! not at all. It is the essential requisite of a barrister's clerk that he should be able to discriminate between these various kinds of would-be clients, and treat each according to his oharaoter. It is also, of course, in the highest degree desirable that he should know— as it were by instinct— when to insist upon a large fee, and when, prudently, with a view to future businesa, to aooept a modorate one. In both these particulars Mr Tonford was about as noar perfection as any more mortal can be, and tho Sergeant valued him accordingly. But one day there came to the chambers in Queen's Bench Walk, a olerk with a eet of papers from Messrs Codger and Bon, of Newgate Btreet. "Codger and Son," said Mr Tonford to himself, as he glanced at the outside of the brief—" Codger and Bon ! Did we ever have anything from Codger and Son ? Don't think so. Old Bailoy lot, I'll swear." Then, aloud to Messrs Codger's messenger, who was, in faofc, the "Son " of the firm, "I aay, young man, you've forgotten to mark tho fee ! What shall we Bay P " taking up a pen and preparing to write in the figures. "Ob, fifty," replied Mr Codger, junior, with an off hand manner. " Fifty ! " cxclaimod Mr Tonford, laying down his pen, with a look of mingled pity and contempt, impossible to do justice to by description. " You had hotter take the papers away, Bir." " Come now," protested Mr Codger, junior ; "a hundred and fifty is not a bad fee, eh ! " •'You said fifty juat now, sir," said Mr Tonford, "or at least I so heard you, but whether it is fifty or a hundred and fifty, it is all tho same to us. We don't do businojs on Buoh terms. Wo don't go into Court Tinder two hundred in a oase like this. You had better go elsewhere, sir; you had, indeed." But Mr Codger, junior, did not want to go elsewhere, for he knew that his case was an exceedingly doubtful one, and that if Serjoant Walham could not win it, it was something more than problematical whether anybody else oould. So at last a fee of two hundred guineas, with the usual fee for consultation, was insoribed by Mr Tonford on the back of the brief. " That's all right, then," said Mr Codger, taking up his hat to go. 11 Will be, when the fee's paid," growled Mr Tonford. 11 Why, what do you mean ?" criod tho attorney, blushing a little, as Mr Tonford thought, " the fee will be all right, you mow." " Ah, yes, I dnre say," said the cautious olerk ; " but, you see, that is not the way in whioh we are accustomed to do business. We're ready-money people here, sir. I don't take a set of papers into the Serjeant's room until I take a oheque along with them. The Serjeant don't road a line that is not paid for so long as I havo the honour to be his olerk. Let us see, when is tho case expooted to be *n?" " They tell me it will first on the paper the day after to-morrow. 1 ' ""Very well, then, if j«u want us to do it you had bettor call in -itli a oheque some time to-morrow. We don't untie the tape, remember, till wo handle the fee." With this Mr Tonford bowed the attorney out, and, as soon as the door was oloaed behind him, prooeeded, in spite of his assertion, to untie the pieoe of red tape with which the bulky-looking brief was bound. "I should like to see what a briof of Codger and Son's is like," ho muttered to himself ; " a fishy case, I'll bet sixpence, if it is like tho man that brought it." And straightway seating himielf before his table, he set to work to extract tho pith of the Toluminous bundle of pin ra. He was not very lofip about this, for his «ye, long praotised in Mich reading, knew pretty well where to look. After about twenty minutes or so, he tied up the brief again and laid it upon his table, saying as he did bo, half to hiraaolf, half to hia eubordinato, tho boy Roborts, " Ah, I thought bo — a very so-socaso. I don'taay that we might not win it, mind, if we put our baoks into it, and had nothing elso to do. But, let us seeWednesday ; we'vn that Metropolitan compensation cubo on, Wednosday, and there's tho Breach of Fromiao in the Common Pleas, and it is ten to one the House of Lords reach Buggins v. Jonea by Wednesday. No, it is not the sort of case to talco up ' on spec' and have a bothor about afterwards if tho parties sure not satisfied. I was quito right to ineist upon monoy down." So muttering, Mr Tonford dismissed Codger and Bon from hia mind, and gavehiß attention to other matters. It may, however, be convenient to enter with a littlo more particularity into the cue whioh the worthy olerk disposed of se summarily. It was an action for It el brovight by a somewhat shady stockbroker, one Moses Contango, against a newspaper of muoh authority on commercial matters, called tho Irtndou Bourse. Mr Contango, who had been sailing Tory near the wind for many years, had at last, encouraged by long impunity, gono just & littlo nearer, and the Bourse had como down upon him with tremendous vohomonco. The vehemenco, indoed, had been just a trifle too tremendous, and thi* g&vo Mr Contango a ohanco which ho would not otherwise havo I had. "SwwJJor," "Bigger of tho Market," '

"Professional gambler with other people's money," are strong terma which take a deal of justification in the eye* of a jury of the oity of London. Still, probably, Mr Contango, who was a wise, if not very honest, man, would hare sat down under the Bourse* scolding, and let the blast blow over, but for his good friends and useful associates in many a shady transition, Codger and Son. Mr Contango, it so happened, owed Codger and Son a little money, whioh Codger and Son law no immediate prospect of getting paid. And it ocourred to them that if Mr Contango were to bring his action through their firm, and recover damages, as there was just a chance he might, with a good spoech and a spanking orosa-examination by Sergeant Walham, sufficient of the damages, so recovered, to cancel their debt might be madetoitiok to the fingers of the plaintiff's attorneys. They therefore puffed up poor Contango, who knew as little about law as he did about honour or honesty, with the notion that he oould not fail to win, and obtained from him authority to instruct couniaL To return now to Serjeant Waltham't ohambers. On the day succeeding that of the interview whioh has been recorded, but at so late an hour of the afternoon that Mr Tonford was beginning to wonder whether tho Sergeant was going home at all, or intended to sit the whole night in ohambers, Mr Codger, jun., presented himself in King's Bench-walk. " Well, Mr Tonford," ho exclaimed, jauntily, "brought yon the rhino, y«n »cc," saying which he produced a oheque book from his pocket, and sitting down, drew a oheque for the sum whioh had been marked upon the brief, and having signed it, and, strange to say (no doubt inadT«rt»ntly) crossed it, handed it to Mr Tonford, and taking a hasty leave of that gentleman, with gome commonplace observations about the weather, ran quiokly down the stain to the oab whioh was waiting for him below. When he was gone, Mr Tonford took up the cheque, and for the first time noticed that it was crossed. He ooloured up to the roots of his hair. " Done, by Jove !" he exolaimed. "Gad, I would not have had this happen for a hundred pounds. What on earth will the Sergeant think of me ?" Juat at this moment the Serjeant passed down the passage on his way out of chambers. 11 Good-night, Tonford ! " »houted the great man, cheerily, through the clerk's door — the Serjeant was always genial with his subordinates. " Oh, by the way, sir," cried Mr Tonford, " I did not know you were going. Here is a brief juat; come in from Codger and Son. Perhaps you'd like to take it home with you P It is first on the paper to-morrow." Codger and Son I" said the Serjeant. "Who the devil are theyP Never heard of them in my life. Fee paid, I suppose ? " 11 Yes, air," said Mr Tonford, rather awiwardly. " Here's the oheque," holding out the still wet document. "I was going to speak to you about it. You see, sir, it is crossed ; and if you will allow me to observe, sir, I don't understand a oheque being crossed when it ia drawn in this room, and handed to me across the table. If it were sent by post, now, it might be a very proper precaution. But you see, sir, if this goes through the clearing-house in the ordinary way it won't be cashed until after the verdict is piven." "Ha! ha!" laughed the Serjeant, delighted with his clerk's caution. " You are getting too sharp, my friend— upon my word you are. Never fear, Tonford, it will be all right, you'll see. Here, give it me," and putting the cheque in his pocket and the brief in bis bag, the learned man hurried away to his home in South Kensington. Next morning in due course the case was called on at Guildhall. The Serjeant, who had Bomehow managed to look into his brief as ho came down to Court in a hansom, opened the case to the jury in a short speeoh of much humour and sprightliness, and — all things considered — wonderful acouraoy. He then examined the first witness, rather briefly, and having by this time got to see pretty dearly that it waß not a oase at all easy to win, he left it to his junior to lose, and betook himself to another court where his services were in request. When, late in the evening, after a long and arduous day of varied success and failure, he returned to ohambers, he found waiting for him from Messrs Codger and Son a note whioh had come by him. It ran thus :— " Sir, — Our client, Mr Contango, having lost his case entirely through your unfortunate inability to attend to it, and the gross mis management of the junior barrister to whose unassisted care you thought proper to intrust so important a brief, you will not be surprised to learn that we have given instructions to our bankers to stop the cheque whioh was handed to you for your fee, should it be presented for payment. — We have tho honour to be, sir, your obedient servants, "Codgbb & Son." Jt was with a smile whioh, if not exactly "childlike," was certainly " bland," that tho Serjeant took up his pen to reply. "Dear Sirs," he wroto (he could afford to be friendly), "in answer to your obliging note just, received, I hasten to inform you that, observing that your cheque was crossed, and anticipating the possibility of the verdict not being satisfactory to your client, I took the precaution of calling upon my bankers on my way down to Court this moraine, requesting them to be good enough to send a special messenger to yours to present the cheque for payment. I rejoice to add that I had the satisfaction of learning that your signature had been duly honoured, before I rose to open the plaintiff's case. " Sorry we lost the verdict. Better luck next time. "Yours very truly, "Johh Walham. " P.B.— By the way, you are rather hard tipon my junior, poor Cropper. He is considered a very rising young man, I assure you."