The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1874-01-17

must have the money first" !" said Mr.. Lot
tus, just as quietly as ever, cutting tn,
leaf OF magazine with mother-of-pear
paper-knife.
$ What security have I that the bond
will be returned?" inquired Mr.. Queens
by. The word of thief, sir.n said MIR
| LOTUS, closing the book with snap, ane
looking squarely at Queensby. eff yor
will give me the money, / shall lock it III
here, and you must trust me. If not, take
your money away with you. If you con
sent to my terms, in five minutes the
bonds will be in your possession. Icould
not give them to you if wanted to, fol
they are not here"
With tremor Queensby handed ove1
the piles of bills to Lotus, who, opening
a safe in the back room, locked them Sc
curely up.
We will now go to the hotel ''-and
saying this Queensby and Lotus went into
the street. The weather was cold, and
both had on their overcoats.
"A drink this raw morning would be
excellent" remarked Mr.. LOTUS. ssThe
brandy at the Corridor is passable. ]
mostly import my own in small quanti-
ties. In New 7 ork everybody aduIterates
brandy so much. Is it not shame that
Union Square, which should be the tidiest
of all places, is always in such shocking
condition? ? and that little scoundrel of a
newsboy, who has splashed the mud over
u.s.. No, do not want a newspaper" he
saiek to the newsboy, and clear out.' A
dirty, ragged newsboy, thus addressed,
who had bundle ofpapers under his arm.
gazed at the speaker, Mr.. Lotus, for mo-
ment with the utmost contempt, and then
made use of some decidedly impertinent
expression. Mr.. LOTUS made an attempt
to strike the rude boy with his neat UNI
brella, which blow the boy evaded, jostlins
against Mr.. Queensby. The incident was
soon forgotten, as they neared the hotel,
when Mr. Queensby's anxiety increased.
Have /, y he remarked to himself, been
fool enough to throw away 81 900? If he
is going to humbug me, | am capable of
shooting him. What about those bonds %
he said cloud.
" Bonds! Why, my dear sir, my dear
Mr.. Queensby, here you have been carry
ing on Broadway. in the most crowded
thoroughfare of the city, some twenty
thousand dollars worth of United States
bonds wrapped up in an old newspaper in
your pocket. 1t is amercy you have not
been robbed. Your escape from losing
them can. only be accounted for by the fact
that the outside of the package by no
means represents the value. of the con-
tents"
Mr.. Queensby felt in his overcoat poek-
ct, and sure enough there was q goodly-
sized package. The hotel was reached,
and in private corner the package was
examined and the bonds, twenty thousand
dollars worth in all, were found to be
correct. Whether Queensby and LOTUS
tried the brandy at the bar of the Corridor
we do not know. How the bonds came
into Queensby's pocket can only be ac-
counted for by the supposition that the
newsboy put them there, but how these
bonds were taken from the Fountain is
still a mystery.
This is precisely how, in this particular
instance, felony was compounded. There
is no safer savings bank than the Fountain
ofTempleton, and during the late panic
there was not even run on it.
Ofcourse, no pitcher can always keep
going to the well and not get broken. So
Chaueer Lotus, Esq, or the forger and
bond-thief, whose real name is Spencer or
spence" Pettis, got hauled UP in due
process of time, and is now an inmate of
the State Prison of Massachusetts, not
on account of any little irregularity with
the Fountain Savings Bank.