The Yale expositor., 1896-04-24


anxious to discover whether their rec
ord was good or not.
l suspected my caller OF belonging to
Scotland Yard or the detective arm or
the British government and when one
OF the young men called next day l
thought it advisable TO drop him hint.
said:
II hope you fellows understand that
things which can be done in one coun-
try without attracting attention, may
be Illegal IN another country. In form
ing company you have to be very
careful that you keep within the limits
OF the law, and if l wero you l should
make no move without the advice of
a competent English solicitor"
There was some alarm in his face as
he loolsed quickly up at me.
why do you say that?" he asked.
Because yesterday a man dropped
In here to make inquiries about you and
/ suspect, without being absolutely cer-
tain, that he Ss a detective of some
sort"
did you tell him anything about
Jul ONGT HtTe. dShtu Iu6
young man.
mo, l did not, but I should judge
from my visitors talk that he knows
a good deal about your business al
ready"
well" said the young man, II know
considerable about the law on both
sides of the Atlantic, and we have been
doing nothing Illegal"
The young man left and that was the
last l ever saw of the Chicago trio.
About a week later the suave gentle
man came in again with a smile on his
face.
We'll" he said, "our birds have
flown to Chicago" pronouncing the lat
ter word with the middle syllable as
if it were spelled "keg."
"Oh, have they?" l asked; II don't
know. I haven't seen any of them for
week."
Yes" he continued, they took the
hint you gave them, and concluded they
would be safer on the other side. OF
course you told them that l had been
here?"
Il told one of them you had been
here"
THAT was why I came. We don't
want to have any trouble with these
young fellows, and l think they will
enjoy themselves better on the other
side Of the ocean,"
What have they been doing?" I
! asked. "Iheir business seemed straight
enough. They haven't been breaking
the law, have they?"
well, not exactly, and yet they have
been sailing rather close to the wind.
What did they tell you they were do
ing here?"
They said they wanted to get up
capital to fit out a fleet Of ten small
scaling vessels TO sail from British
Columbia"
Exactly! Did they add that they had
no intention OF capturing any seals?"
mo. Why should they want to fit
out sailing feet if they caught moth
ing?"
Their object" replied the man, "was
not to CATCH but to be caught. Their
vessels were to he fitted out for no
other purpose but to be caught and
brought in by the United States cruis-
ers; then when the case came to ar
bitration, and when the United States
failed to win (as proably they will
faiD, heavy suits for damages would be
brought against the United States
government by the nominal owners of
these vessels. The three young men
were not to appear in any way in the
company, but they were to share in
whatever damages were to be extracted
from the United States government.
They were also to appear as the legal
advisers of the nominal owners of the
vessels in the United States courts, if
the matter went to the courts. This,
they claimed, would give them certain
legal standing in Chicago and with the
money they were to have received, the
case might not after all have turned
out a bad speculation. Their design
came to the ear of the authorities owe,
here, who were very anxious that
nothing should be done TO complicate
affairs. There were hardly sufficient
grounds to justify the arrest of the
young men, and If they had been ar
rested there would probably have been
an outcry on the other side, that inno-
cent young men were being tyrannized
over by the brutal British. However,
they seemed to know very we'll that
they were not in legitimate business,
and was very glad they took their de-
nartI1re as uuietly as thny did"
l intended to give still another in.
stance of a gigantic scheme for max
ing a fortune, but to that shall de-
vote a separate article.