Speaker 1: The failure by Harold Ward Amos Duncan paused for a
Speaker 1: second beside the time clock in the hallway just outside
Speaker 1: the offices of Carney and Kirk. Then, his heart beating
Speaker 1: like a trip hammer, he mustered up courage enough to
Speaker 1: push open the swinging doors and peep into the gloomy interior.
Speaker 1: He was frightened, scared to the point of hysteria. Yet
Speaker 1: for thirty years he had stopped in that self same
Speaker 1: place in the hallway morning and noon on his way
Speaker 1: to work. For thirty years, fifty two weeks in the year,
Speaker 1: six days a week, and twice each day, had he
Speaker 1: sought his number on the time clock and pushed the
Speaker 1: button which registered his comings and his departures. Instinctively four
Speaker 1: figures were one of his hobbies. He made the calculation
Speaker 1: in his head. Eighteen thousand, seven hundred and twenty times
Speaker 1: had he pushed his way through those doors. And never before,
Speaker 1: except possibly the first time, when he had applied for
Speaker 1: a place with the firm, had he been as frightened
Speaker 1: as he was now. For this was the first time
Speaker 1: he had ever come to rob getting a grip on himself,
Speaker 1: he entered the Big Office on tip toe an office
Speaker 1: covering nearly one fourth of a city block. Yet he
Speaker 1: knew that Old Bill Judkins, the watchman, would be making
Speaker 1: his rounds out in the factory at that particular hour.
Speaker 1: It was part of his daily work to check up
Speaker 1: the dial on the night watchman's clock. He knew that
Speaker 1: the old man traveled as true to schedule as a
Speaker 1: mail train. He halted just inside the doors and listened,
Speaker 1: his eyes taking in every one of the familiar details.
Speaker 1: From where he stood, he could discern the dark shapes
Speaker 1: of rows and rows of desks, each identical in size
Speaker 1: and finish with its mates. Around two sides of the
Speaker 1: big room were innumerable cubby holes of offices, divided from
Speaker 1: each other by ground glass partitions, extending two thirds of
Speaker 1: the way to the ceiling. During working hours, they housed
Speaker 1: the elite of the office world, the men and women
Speaker 1: who had pushed their heads above those of their fellows.
Speaker 1: His own desk was second from the front, and the
Speaker 1: second row from the right, just inside the cashier's cage,
Speaker 1: a huge affair of wire, netting and glass. It gave
Speaker 1: him renewed courage for the task ahead as he gazed
Speaker 1: upon its outline staring at him out of the darkness.
Speaker 1: For twenty seven years, since the day of his promotion
Speaker 1: from the office boy ranks, he had occupied that desk
Speaker 1: or one like it in Cagney and Kirk's office, giving
Speaker 1: to Cagney and Kirk the best of his manhood for
Speaker 1: starvation wages and two weeks vacation yearly on pay. Others
Speaker 1: had gone over his head, scores of them man no
Speaker 1: better fitted than he, young cubs would pull or college education.
Speaker 1: He had long since given up hopes of promotion. He
Speaker 1: had reached the point where he was a mere cog
Speaker 1: in the machine, a fizzle and a failure. In ninety
Speaker 1: nine cases out of every hundred, when a man goes wrong,
Speaker 1: a woman is responsible. In Amos Duncan's case, the woman
Speaker 1: was missus Amos Duncan, a downtrodden cog in an office machine,
Speaker 1: the man with little force of character. In the beginning,
Speaker 1: hen pecked at home and abroad, Duncan held to the
Speaker 1: firm opinion that his wife had conferred a favor upon
Speaker 1: him by maryan him. The fact that he had rescued
Speaker 1: her from a life of drudgery in the shipping room
Speaker 1: of the factory changed his opinion not one iota, nor
Speaker 1: did missus Duncan fail to keep his memory refreshed whenever
Speaker 1: opportunity offered itself. Amos Duncan longed to appear as a
Speaker 1: hero in the eyes of his wife. It had taken
Speaker 1: him two years to screw up his courage to the
Speaker 1: point of robbing Carney and Kirk, Yet he had planned
Speaker 1: the affair so often that he knew he would be
Speaker 1: absolutely above suspicion, and with the money once in his hands,
Speaker 1: he would hide it until all memory of the affair
Speaker 1: had blown over, and then, with a carefully concocted story
Speaker 1: of a lucky speculation on change, resign and migrate to
Speaker 1: some distant city to spend his declining years in ease
Speaker 1: with the lady who had assumed his name. Carney and
Speaker 1: Kirk always paid off in cash. Duncan knew that there
Speaker 1: was close to fifty thousand dollars in the vault, ready
Speaker 1: to go into pay envelopes in the morning. As assistant
Speaker 1: cashier and one of the old timers with the firm
Speaker 1: he had been entrusted with the combination. He had read
Speaker 1: that skilled burglars were able to open vaults by listening
Speaker 1: to the whirl of the mechanism. A rag saturated with
Speaker 1: alcohol would do away with telltale fingerprints. The police would
Speaker 1: think the robbery the work of a professional. Still walking
Speaker 1: on his toes, he worked his way through the maze
Speaker 1: of desks to the big vault in the rear of
Speaker 1: the office behind the cashier's cage. Taking a tiny flashlight
Speaker 1: from his pocket, he pressed the button and allowed the
Speaker 1: stream of light to play over the dial while he
Speaker 1: manipulated the affair with fingers that trembled as from the
Speaker 1: augu it refused to work in his nervousness. He had
Speaker 1: gone past the number. He took a deep breath, and,
Speaker 1: with the sweat standing out out in great beads upon
Speaker 1: his face, attacked the job again. Someone was entering the
Speaker 1: office through one of the rear doors leading from the factory.
Speaker 1: He stopped for a second, then, as he heard the
Speaker 1: footsteps coming toward him in the darkness, he leapt outside
Speaker 1: the cage and drew his revolver. He had never fired
Speaker 1: a gun in his life. He had bought this one,
Speaker 1: a cheap second hand affair, merely as a matter of precaution,
Speaker 1: and because he knew that burglars always carried such weapons
Speaker 1: from out of the darkness came a flash, a report.
Speaker 1: A bullet sped past his head and flattened itself against
Speaker 1: the vault door. It must be Judkins, the faithful had
Speaker 1: heard something suspicious and had entered the realization of his
Speaker 1: mission in the office at that time of night stopped
Speaker 1: him involuntarily. He gave a little squeak of fear. A
Speaker 1: second bullet passed unpleasantly near instinctively, just as a cornered
Speaker 1: rat will fight, so his finger pressed the trigger of
Speaker 1: his own gun. He fired aimlessly in the general direction
Speaker 1: of the other, dodging from desk to desk, knocking over chairs.
Speaker 1: He was in a panic of fear. The other's fire ceased. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: from out of the darkness across the great room came
Speaker 1: a dull, throaty cry. Something metallic jangled against the tiled floor.
Speaker 1: An instant later, it was followed by a heavier body,
Speaker 1: a body that crashed against a desk as it dropped.
Speaker 1: Duncan leaped through the folding doors and out into the
Speaker 1: hallway again. To unlock the outer door and dash out
Speaker 1: into the sidewalk was but the work of an instant.
Speaker 1: Around the corner, he heard the shrill whistle of the
Speaker 1: policeman on the beat. As attracted by the shots, he
Speaker 1: came lumbering along, signaling for his mate. He dodged into
Speaker 1: the shadow and turned into the alley. Behind him, he
Speaker 1: could hear the policeman hammering on the office door with
Speaker 1: his nightstick. From two blocks down the street came the
Speaker 1: sound of another whistle in the distance. A third shrilled,
Speaker 1: proving that reinforcements were on the way. Missus Duncan was
Speaker 1: sleeping soundly when he arrived home after a round trip
Speaker 1: through the alleys and side streets. Letting himself into the
Speaker 1: house with his pass key, he hastily sought the security
Speaker 1: of his own room. So far as he knew, no
Speaker 1: one had seen him either going into the factory nor
Speaker 1: leaving it. But God, what a fizzle he had made
Speaker 1: of the affair. And there was blood on his hands,
Speaker 1: the blood of poor old Judkins. What had he gained? Nothing?
Speaker 1: Absolutely nothing. He paced the floor, every nerve tangling, he wondered,
Speaker 1: poor old Judkins. And he had a crippled wife too.
Speaker 1: With Judkins gone, she would have to go to the poorhouse.
Speaker 1: It was something that he had not foreseen. He was
Speaker 1: still pacing the floor when the sun came up in
Speaker 1: the east. In the other room, he heard Missus Duncan
Speaker 1: getting up. In less than two hours, he would have
Speaker 1: to go to the office. Of course, no one would
Speaker 1: suspect him, but he could hear Missus Duncan rattling the
Speaker 1: pots and pans in the kitchen. When the door bell rang.
Speaker 1: He opened the bedroom door crack and peeped through. As
Speaker 1: she answered the summons, A gruff voice was asking for him.
Speaker 1: He heard her admit the visitors. There seemed to be
Speaker 1: two of them. When she called Shrilly up the stairway
Speaker 1: for him. He knew that they were detectives from their
Speaker 1: heavy tread. They were after him for killing Judkins. His
Speaker 1: brain was in a horse. Yet he wondered how it
Speaker 1: happened that they associated him with the crime. He had
Speaker 1: been so careful too. Probably he had dropped something in
Speaker 1: his mad rush to the outer door. He could never
Speaker 1: face the music and Missus Duncan. What would she say?
Speaker 1: He couldn't tell her that he had gone to the
Speaker 1: office to rob the vault for her sake and had
Speaker 1: made a failure. The gun lay in the bureau drawer
Speaker 1: where he had tossed it. He picked it up and
Speaker 1: broke it open. The chambers were all empty. He had
Speaker 1: used every cartridge in killing poor Judkins. From downstairs came
Speaker 1: a buzz of conversation. Missus Duncan shrieked. He heard his
Speaker 1: own name mentioned. God, they had told her what he
Speaker 1: had done. He must move rapidly. His glance fell upon
Speaker 1: a bottle of carbolic acid. Missus Duncan and was at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the stairway now shrieking his name. He
Speaker 1: placed the bottle to his mouth and emptied it at
Speaker 1: a gulp, With the fiery liquid eating into his vitals
Speaker 1: his throat of fire, he reeled across the room and
Speaker 1: tumbled in a heap upon the bed outside. Missus Duncan
Speaker 1: was pounding at his door. Amos, wake up. She was
Speaker 1: shouting between sobs, for Missus Duncan was a hysterical woman,
Speaker 1: and awful things happened. There are two detectives here. Old
Speaker 1: man Judkins went home sick from the factory last night,
Speaker 1: and while he was gone, somebody broke into the office.
Speaker 1: The robbers had a fight, cause one of them was
Speaker 1: found dead when the police broke in after hearing the shots.
Speaker 1: Right the cashier is out of town. And they want
Speaker 1: you to come down and open the vault and see
Speaker 1: if anything is gone. Oh, isn't it awful? Amos? Why
Speaker 1: don't you answer the end of the failure