The Case of the Troubled Trustee Read Online Free PDF Page A

about fifteen thousand dollars. That means he must have had to sell some of the securities."
    "Not the Steer Ridge," Hedley said confidently. "There's some sort of a proxy fight on, and a man called on Desere just a couple of weeks ago to get her proxies. She sent him to Dutton.
    "That stock is going up like a rocket. It'll be worth thousands, hundreds of thousands!"
    Mason said, "I fail to see just what difference all this makes-to you."
    "This simply means there will now be adequate funds for us to carry out the work we want. Desere can give me the financial backing and I'll go to work on that endowment. It's going to be one of the biggest things in the whole world of creative art, Mr. Mason.
    "Don't you understand what it's going to mean? My Lord, here are potential geniuses starving to death and being forced into some kind of a commercial treadmill occupation simply because they can't hang on until an unappreciative society recognizes their talent.
    "We're going to create future Rembrandts. That is, they won't be stuffy like Rembrandt-they'll be truly creative in every sense of the word. We're going to develop writing geniuses. We're going to develop poets. We're going to emancipate American art and talent."
    "Have you told Desere about this new development?" Mason asked.
    "I haven't been able to get her thus far, but I certainly hope I can be the first to tell her. This was the day she started school, you know-business school."
    "I see," Mason said. "Well, thank you very much for calling."
    "Can you tell me where I can get in touch with Kerry Dutton?" Hedley asked.
    "No," Mason said.
    "I should talk with him right away in case he doesn't know about developments."
    "You don't have his address?"
    "I wasn't interested enough to ever ask for his address. Frankly, Mason, I think your client is a square, and I think he handled that trust like a fool."
    "How should he have handled it?" Mason asked.
    "He should have conserved the assets so there'd be enough money for Desere to do something that would really make a mark. Why, if he'd been careful and held her down to earth on expenses, she could have lived on just the income from the securities, and the principal could have been intact for something of this sort."
    "All right," Mason said. "Thank you for calling but I'm not permitted to give out my client's address. I think the proper procedure would be for you to call Miss Ellis, have Miss Ellis call Dutton, and Dutton call me."
    "All right," Hedley said, "if that's the way you want it. I was just trying to do you a favor."
    "I appreciate your interest," Mason said. "Good-by." And the lawyer hung up.
    Della Street, who had been monitoring the conversation and taking shorthand notes, looked up from her book and said, "Well, that's that. The fat seems to be in the fire."
    Mason said, "Hang it, you have to sympathize with Dutton's viewpoint despite the fact it's irregular. However, if it comes to a showdown on a strict legal basis, we can probably keep him in the clear.
    "He had every right on earth to sell any securities that he wanted to and invest the money in other securities. He didn't have any right to mislead his beneficiary and he should have made accountings. He had no right to mingle his own funds with those of the trust. Somehow I have an idea that when Mrs. Hedley finds out about all this and finds out that the stock in the Steer Ridge Oil and Refining Company was sold a year ago, there's going to be a fine, large mix-up and I am going to be right in the middle of it."
    "That," Della Street said, "seems to me to be the understatement of the week. What are we going to tell Desere?"
    "The same thing we tell everybody," Mason said. "We are representing Dutton. We are not representing anyone else. We can give out no information. Let them get in touch with Dutton, and Dutton, in turn, will get in touch with me."
    "When this news gets to him," Della Street said, "he'll- Well, he may take to the tall timber."
    "How do you know