Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-09-20

| HIS appearance or not. My conscience
smOte me for having formed his acquaint
ance. At best, he was suspicious char
acter, and perhaps had dealings with evi
spirits. 1t was much in vogue then in
New York for men to be Influenced by
good spirits, why not by evil spirits alsoi
was interrupted in these and similar re
fiections bya single rap at the doOr-a sud
den, solemn rap-an OminOus rap. The
sound made me feel chilly. Iguessed who
the rapper was, and was right. "COme
in," said /, tremulOusly.
He entered, smiling as blandly as ever
/ started involuntarily; for he looked Sc
like Bumpus that thought ii was that
worthy individual come to complete his
operation.
SCOT the money - pointing with his
thumb over his right shoulder to large
party of sturdy satellites, who were carry
ing in number of ponderous bags, which
they dropped with loud crash upon the
floor. Others had huge bundles of bank
notes. Atfirst | fairly disbelieved my own
eyes-I must be dreaming. Presently one
of the bags became Observation-Disclosures
by accident or OH purpose do not know
but hundreds of broad, glittering twen-
| ty-dollar gold pieces rolled upon the floor.
| The sight gave me sensation like that
caused by q rush of blood to the head. /
took up some Of the pieces and examined
them. weighed them ON the tip of my
finger, and rung them over and over again
on the table. They seemed most tempt
ingly genuine. Gold has charm for the
eyes that never realized till then. was
poor man. What could not do with
such treasure?
My visitor gave me time to consider.
He hummed tune. and examined some
books lying about. "He must be the
devil" thought. And yet, the longer /
looked at the bags still coming in, the more
ardently did wish to make them mine.
Il may outwit him." reflected. ''H he
wants me to be his slave, he will find him.
self mistaken. l may compromise for the
present, and turn him adrift by-and-by
Hang the fellow. he looks at me and
smiles, as if he could read the secrets of
my soul"
"What services am to render for this -
| asked at length, with some hesitation.
''Oh. We'll speak Of that hereafter"
watched him closely as he went out.
He had not the sign of hOof, and his legs,
without any exaggeration, were those of a
well-made man.
As he left, an undefinable sensation of
bodily pain seized me. / could not say
that 1 felt it in any particular limb, but It
thrilled through my entire frame
like convulsion or spasIn, and forewarned
me of future suffering.
| was alone with the gold. rolled
some of it out, counted, and returned it.
examined and re-eXamined the massive
ingots. daintily handled few of the
notes, and found them to be five hundred
dollar bills. | then put them all back,
covered them carefully, and sat down to
think. The tremendous power that such
wealth could give me forced itself upon
my mind. | became fascinated with the
charm. The demon of avarice was at
work even then. for conceived plans for
doubling and trebling the enormous sum
/ possessed. In contemplating such "A vast
treasuIre-with its existence rapidly before
mel soon lost sight of conscientious scru-
piles. They vanished that night, and for
ever. before closed my eyes in sleep.
| was on foot early next morning. re-
solved to deposit a large portion of my
money i'm the various banks of the city
the notes, especially, was afraid of los
ing. In order to avoid suspicion it be-
came necessary to employ agents. They
were found without much difficulty; and
a week afferward / had the satisfaction OF
knowing that had deposited some twenty
millions i'm fifty banks of New York under
fifty different names.
The excitement i'm New York was mar
velous. Such an influx of currency had
not been known within the memory OF
man. 1t became a drug in the market.
My next step was to purchase house
in Fifth avenue. Several were for sale,
and chose solitary one far up town,
with a spacious fire-proOf vault in the
basement. Into it gradually removed all
my gold. / selected Fifth avenue because
1t was more retired, and | would be less
noticed there than i'm other parts of the
city. | still retained, however, my old
residence, for the purpose of transacting
business. Indeed. opened numerous Off
ces down town, and appeared in each un.
der different names and disgliises. In all
did, worked with extreme caution, and
even the men | employed knew little OF
nothing of my affairs. / was satisfied on
this point from the result of numerous ex.
periments to which resorted In order tC
test the extent of the discoveries their curl.
osity prompted them to make. fused to EN-.
joy going down to Wall street, and there
buy up the available stock of "a company
raise the premium to a fabulous sum, sci
ont, and then realize an immense profit
The merchants were all agog; for they
were, of course, unable to detect the under
current that disturbed the once even tide
of commerce. had their paper TO any
amount, andscould have ruined men OF ths
highest standing. Operators and jobber'
were In perpetual fever of excitement.
! Ii would be tedious to tell of the mum
berless schemes i'm which was engaged
the colossal business carried ON in trade
the vast speculations by which realized
additional millions. Let it suffice that
doubled and even trebled the original
amount of my wealth. tried in vain t
make rough estimate ofwhat was worth
Months passed away, during which my
love of gold rapidly increased. l had ;
craving to see, to handle the glitterin2
metal. Every coin was Of value to m,
eyes. But beyond this instinct, had nov
a demons desire to exercise my power
to injure, and If possible to destroy.
held no friendly communications witt
any living soul, and had sympathy fo
none.
During this time suffered continual,
from the spasmodic pains have described
and began to suspect that was not radi
cally cured of the disease with which hat