The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-03-27

This, however, my friend would not
hear of, and said he must either win q
third time or pay for the dinner he had
lost. In the meantime he must tell me
that he had really been sent by the
Chef-de- Bureau in the Rue Jernsaleme
to announce to me that q part, if not
the whole, of the bonds had been dis
covered, and that they were in the
hands of a very disreputable firm in
Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth. "And
now, mon ami" said the Frenchman,
" all you have to do is to remain quiet
for the present, and not to move in the
affair. In two or three days we hope
to carry through your wishes. And as
to our little bet, gar a vous mOnsieur!''
With this he gave my hand shake and
disappeared, chuckling to himself be-
hind the thick white mustache before
going down stairs.
During the next two days, which 1,
nothing 1oath, employed in looking up
my friends, visiting the theater, and
otherwise killing time, l regarded with
suspicion every Frenchman who ap-
preached me, thinking to discover, in
every strange face, the bright, twink
ling eyes and triumphant smile of my
clever enemy. On the evening of the
second day 1 went to see a friend off
from the Mazas Station, and, strange
to say, that, although I had only at the
eleventh hour made up my mind to &C.
company him, it was here L lost my
third and last point in my bet with
Monsieur x. As our facre drove up,
one of the regular-ticketed porters came
forward to take my companions trunk.
In lifting it from the roof of the car
riage he let it fall. Upon this 1 spoke
to him somewhat angrily. Frenchman-
like, he returned my abuse, and, for at
least five minutes, we stood face to face,
slanging each other in the choicest of
French language. My friend, who was
an Englishman, stood by, anxious to
put in q word to help me, but not know
ing exactly how to do SO. All of sud-
den the porter put down the trunk, and
asked me to speak to him in the street.
Taking me under the gaslight, and
looking cautiously around, he pulled
off his cap and curious sort of skin
mask which covered the forehead, nose
and upper part of the face, fitting close
ly like glove, and there stood Mon
sieur x.
l at once declared that ] had fairly
lost the bet and invited him and any
other two friends he liked to bring to
dine with me the next day at my favor
tie restaurant in the Place du Havre.
We then returned to the most central
part of Paris, my companion having
in the meantime changed his clothes at
the house of friend in the neighbor-
hood.
The history of the finding of the bonds
is soon told. In three or four days aft
er my arrival in Paris the police had
the whole affair at their fingers end.
1t was just as they suspected. The
securities had been pledged to a very
low money-lending firm for something
under five hundred pounds, they being
worth twenty times the amount. A
ittle-or l should say not little
pressure were put upon these Shylocks,
who, for a premium of two thousand
francs (fSOO were made to disgorge
what may truly be called their plum
der. They manage these things,
if not better, at any rate more
promptly in France than in England.
The Paris police gave the holders of
the bonds the chance of restoring the
bonds to me, or of appearing before the
juge d'instruction. Both Individually
and collectively, this firm could not be
said to have had a clean bill of health.
1t was not the first, nor yet the second,
nor third time, that they had been
mixed up with money affairs, which, to
say the least of it, were excessively
shady. They consented at once to give
up what they were told was stolen
property. The result was that within
ten days of my leaving London, 1 re-
turned there, having fulfilled my mis-
sion my expenses, being all paid and a
check for a hundred guineas handed to
me as remuneration for my trouble.
- GorDbSU Mn0Hzio,o