Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-04-05
WHOLE NO. 2,263.

! to which firm, upon a day he named,
some foreign bonds payable tto
: bearer" and worth 100000 francs
lEI0,0 600, had been pledged as seeu-
rity for loan Of one twenty-flflh of
their value. The principal facts Of
the mans statement were easy
enough to understand, bat what
between his rambling voice and
his evident desire to conceal csltuin
details, / could not exactly make
out his story, and ended by asking
him whether he would accOmpany
me to the Rue de Jeruhaleme, and
state there what he had told me.
"AOec Ie pltts grand Eidisiy'," re-
] piled he, in familiar and alto
! gether changed voice, and there.
pulling off his wig and adlpising
his moustache, sat revealed once
more my travelling cOmpahion,
Monsieur X had certainly been
taken in, If pusslDle fnGre Conn
pletely than the first time, and
again offered to pay my debt as
fairly lost. This, however, NV
friend would not hear Of, and said
he must either win third time, or
else pay for the dinner he had lost.
In the meantime, he must iell me
that he had really been seiit by the
chief de bureau III the Rue de geru-
saleine that part, If not the whole,
of the bonds ha65 been discOvered,
and that they were in the hands Of
very disrepOJable firm Ia Rue
Notre Dame de Nazareth. "And
now, mon ami, Haid the French
man, ''all you have to do Is tO re-
main quiet for tlie present, and not
to move in the affair. lin two or
three days we hope 10 carry through
your wishes. And as to our little
bet, gar a vcus, hlOnsieur " With
this he gave my hand shake and
disappeared, chnchling 10 hinlself
behind the thick white mOustnche
before going down stairs.
During the next two days, which
l, nothing loath, employed Ia look
ing up my friends, visiting the
theatre, and otherwise killing time,
regarded with suspicion every
Frenchman who approached me,
thinking to discover, In every
strange face, the bright, twinkling
eyes and triumphant smile OF my
clever enemy. On the evening of
the second day went to see IA friend
off from the Mazas station, and
strange to say that, although i had
only at the eleventh hour made up
my mind to accompany him, II was
here | lost my third and last point
in my bet with Monsieur X. Al our
fiacre 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 II fall. Upon this
spoke To him somewhat angrily.
Frenchman.like, he returned my
abuse, and, for az least five inmates,
we stood face to face, slaliging each
other In the chOicaJt of French bad
language. My friend, who was an
Englishman, stood by, anxious 10
put in a word tb felp roe, but not
knowing exactly how to do SO. All
of a sudden 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-Tlask
which covered the forehead, nose
and upper part Of the fatse, fitting
closely like a glove, and there stood
Monsieur Y.
/ at once declared that had fairly
lost the bet, and invited him and
any other two friends ht liked to
bring to dine with me the next day
at my favOTite restaurant In the
Place du Havre We then returned
to the most central part OF Paris, my
having In the meantime
his clothes at tho house Of
a friend In the nEiglbOrhOOd.
The history OF the finding Of the
bonds is soon told. In three or four
days after my arrival In Paris the
police had the whole affair at their
fingers end. It was Just as they
expected. The securities had been
pledged to q very low money-lend-
ing firm for something under five
hundred pounds, they being worth
twenty times the amount. A little
or should say not a little-pres-
sure was put upon these ShylOcks,
who for premium of two thousand
francs eighty pOunds) were made
to disgorge what may truly be
called their plunder. They man
aged these things, If not better, at
any rate more promptly I'm France
imam IN England. Inc EarlS police
gave the holders Of the bonds the
chance of restoring the bonds to
me, or of appearing before the Judge
d'instruetiOn. 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 ii, 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 Lon
don, / returned there, having full
filed my mission my expenses
being all paid, and a check for a
hundred guineas handed to me a.
a remuneration for my trouble.