Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-11-02

Then hurried to the Grosyenor, ana
we all looked at them with curiosity,
for it was upon the imitation of Just
such acceptances that our whole plan
was based.
Of course the success or failure of our
whole plan turned upon this point. l.
it the custom Of the Bank of England
Tin 1879 to send acceptances offered for
discount to the acceptors for veriication
of signatures:
This is always dono in America, and
had this very requisite precaution been
used by the Bank of England our plan
would have been fruitless.
Taking my deposit book and the gen.
uine bills, went to the bank and left
the bills for discount. This was at once
done, and the amount placed to my
credit. I drew 10000 and that night
found me once more one of 500 unfor
tunates paying tribute to Neptune. This
time landed at Ostend aud took the
train for Amsterdam. There ! repeated
the Paris operation, securing $40, 200 in
genuine bills. returned to London and
as before left them for acceptance Then
my companion manufactured lot of
limitations and put them away with
those previously manufactured to be all
ready when the day came to use them.
The genuine bills were then discounted.
ALI the details Of events leading
through the long summer and autumn
days of 1872 up to the hour when the
golden shower began to fall on us are of
intense, even dramatic, interest. will
not, however, lengthen the narrative by
giving here any further account of them,
but will merely relate the story of the
last five days before the actual presenta-
tion of our home brewed acceptances
The bank had been discounting for
weeks comparatively large sums for me
of the genuine article, and our imita-
ton was close copy. Many thousand
pounds of the genuine article discounted
for me had matured and had been paid,
and more thousands We're still in the
vaults awaiting maturity and would fall
due while our home manufactured bills
would be laid away in the vaults, there
to remain for four or five months until
due. OF course full month or two
months before that we could pack our
baggage and be ON the other side of the
world.
But, as the sequel will show, the
reality took on a different complexion
from the ideal.
My credit at the bank was solid as a
rock. That means I had gone through
the red tape routine. 1t only behooved
US to use circumspection enough to avoid
making mistakes in our papers, and
fortune was ours. I knew everything
was all right, but George, being thor
ough business man himself, could not
comprehend that it could be quite right,
and he insisted upon one supreme test.
Any single bill of exchange is seldom
drawn for more than 81 900, rarely for
$4,000, and one of e6,O is almost I'M
heard of. But George had made up his
mind that as q test, and to make an i'm
preston upon the bank manager,
should go to Paris and get a bill on Lon.
don from Rothschilds drawn to the or
der Of f. A. Warren direct. Could this
be done it would of course make it APP
pear that I had intimate relations with
the Rothschilds, and as a minor consid-
Grafton we could use the Rothschilds' ac-
ceptance-a pretty nervy thing to do, as
Sir Anthony de Rothschild, the head of
the London house, whose name we pro-
posed to offer, was a director of the
Bank of England and would have to
pass his own paper for discount-that
Is, paper bearing his name, manufac-
tured by ourselves
We tried to talk George out of this
notion, which Mac and regarded as a
freak unnecessary in the first place and
impossible anyhow. But he was persist
ent, and had to start out and try. At
Calais 1 took my. place in what the
French call a coupe-that is, the end
compartment on car, which, by pay
ing 10 francs extra, you can occupy
alone. had fallen into a sound sleep
before the train started and was aroused
from it to find myself hurled about the
compartment much as stout boy would
shake mouse in a cage and quite as
helpless.
Our train was off the track. Nv car
riage was near the engine, and the mo-
mentum of the long train forced the car
in the rear of mine up on end, and it
appeared as if it would fall over and
crush me. Thought my hour had come,
and cried out. cat last!'' There was
no fear or terror in it, but merely the
thought that after many months of al
most incessant travel, and necessarily of
peril. 'at last my fate had come. 1t
had not. How good heaven could have
been if it had sent me to my doom then
and there.
The accident had occurred at Mar.
qulse, small town 16 miles from Calais
and four from Boulogne, the first STOP
ping place of the express. Two were
killed and half Of the remaining passen-
gers injured. My own injuries were
slight and consisted of trifiing cuts on
the face and hands from flying glass.
But, far worse than that, l had received
a nervous shock which took some weeks
to wear off, and during the rest of my
journey to Paris and retarn to London ]
was as nervous as timid woman. ]
staid at Marquise until noon, when the
express passing at that hour made a spe.
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