The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-07-30

OF MS arm 8 Stfeng23 tOOk II In low De-
hind his boat and vas soon able to land
his cargo and tow in safety near the
| burned mansion.
Securing his boat, 81 - now sent the
boy for help to fetch away his fish, and
amused himself by :disemboweling the
monster. His jackrknife struck upon
something hard and metallic in the Wis.,
cera Of the fish, and, examining more
closely, he broughf4o light square, nat
zinc box, about th9&dze Of one-pound
gunpowder can, NJ sth corroded, but ap-
parently hermetido j sealed and water
tight. He washed pf, dried 1t, and put
it in his pocket fefegture examination;
then, the boy hsiou4 come with help,
took his fish and 5is ie tidbits from the
shark up to his tef ycauch to the joy Of
the occupants, wpn' Guild not thank him
enough. b-y
Col. E, TO Kr$ 1-aA--- showed
his box, immediatsbosshought he recog-
nized it as one off aboEuliar sort Of dis
patch-box used bxs al Confederate Gov
ernment for their ygatsengers by sea and
in blockade.runlomN being convenient
for carrying in tn, Fket and for throw.
ing overheard In i'd sthe vessel was cap
tured. The box xpG carefully opened
and was found to keprecisely what Col.
F. suspected-a dispatch-box of the
Confederate Government. The contents,
in addition to some papers Of no present
importance, comprised series of long
dispatches in cipher addressed to a we'll
known agent in Paris of the defunct re-
bellion, and ten csssiflcates Of deposit,
promising to pay money of Ambrose
Gunter's, now on deposit with the bank
ing-house of X. Animas Freres, Bor-
deaux, to John Brown or order, when
properly countersi5-s4s. The amount of
the certificates in all was $4,000 francs.
Worth nothing, of course" said H,
down on his luck as usual.
mot a nickel, my boy" said Col.
E; but, nevertheless, you must
come with me tomorrow and show them
to Mr.. 7. To-morrow's my we'll
day, and I'm goins up to Charleston to
see about getting ]. shanty put up for my
folks to live in"
In Charleston next day Il was
taken by Col E to Mr.. T and
introduced to that gentleman, to whom
he told the story of the shark, and pre-
sented the box and its contents. Mr..
T eyed him sharply, and asked him
if the whole stosg had been told him.
Col. E vols ned for his kinsman,
and the ex-Secrasary opened the box
glanced at the cier er dispatch, and turned
very pale. "H& I: either of you read
this?' he askebr mo-" said H
:" intended to 7aske out the cipher, but
have not yet hr time" Mr.. T
answered nothir, but, taking the drafts
out of the box, . LIED lighted match
to the remaining papers, and watched
them burn to az ors with sigh of satis-
faction. PER- re,, iecrets, young man."
said he, "andr lam ! to dispose of
them thus. digessy regulations but
those, masssEs xsa public. sa Now, as
to those certiSI ! ses.--they are very prob
ably worth NO ing herE,,,ut you have done
me real servs, vs,tter as matter, and more
besides me, anohs lou can get anything
out Of them, anv r. is worth trying, you
are perfectly W come to it all. The
money belongs to aobody, strictly speak
ing-for | do not consider that the late
Confederacy had any heirs-and if you
can get hold of it, do So"
What money is it, or was it," asked
"Fm going to tell you," answered
T, and it is remarkable in
stance of the hard fortune of war that
seemed to pursue the Confcderacy
throughout. You recollect the sterling
cotton loan we made during the last year
of the war-the loan by which our En-
glish brethren were made so sick? That
money was raised to pay for ironclads,
you know. The gunboats were built
the Stonewall was one of them-but not
delivered. Diplomacy kept US from
getting to sea with the English-built
ones, and it was thought the same reason
kept the French-built steamers from go
ing to sea, but that is not exactly the
fact. We would have succeeded in get
ting them out if they had been fully paid
for. We made what we thought were
ample arrangements for completing the
payments, but they failed through our
persistent bad luck. For instance, take
the case of these very certificates. 1t
was necessary for us to use all sorts OF
precautions in buying this sort of goods
to protect the parties we dealt with, for
we knew the Yankees would throw them
into court. Hence the money was de-
posted in various banks in the names of
private persons, but SO that it could not
be drawn unless the certificates were in
dorsed in a particular way. This is
deposit, you see, of Gunter's money pay
able to Brown on certain terms-in 9TH
er words, it is Confederate draft sent
out by express messenger and payable
when indorsed by the agent to whom
sent. The agent must indorse it in par
ticular way, and would not do so unless
the messenger brought certain creden-
tials. The system of checks and bal
ances was necessary for our financial Sc
curity, but in this case and several 9TH
ers like it was fatal to our plans.
"The messenger to whom this particu-
lar box was intrusted-young Ricaud-I
remember the very morning I sent him
was instructed to 60 to Wilmington,
cross to Bermuda in the blockade-runner
Fannie, sail thence for London, report to
an agent there, and from him get further
orders. Ricaud, instead of going on the
Fannie, took another steamer, the Gan
net, for Nassau. The Gannet was cap
tured, Ricaud's dispatch-box went to
feed the sharks, and Ricaud himself to
rusticate at Johnson's Island. Meantime
we, who knew of the Fannie's safe voy-
age, were congratulating ourselves that
our agent was on the road to Bordeaux,
and we did not discover the truth until
it was too late to provide remedy. This
sort of thing happened several times, and
our French gunboats never got to sea-"
"Then those Bourdalese still have our
money!" said Col. E.
"That remains to be seen. was just
coming to that point. This particular
deposit has never been checked out-of
that am sure. 1t was quite forgotten.