LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2256, 25 June 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE FIRM OF AH-WHY & CD. a banker's story. (Continued.) Most satisfactory wore the relations existing between ua and Ah Why and Co., and I wrote home glowing accounts of tho lucrative branch of business established. It is true, th»t at times we advanced them rather large sums, larger indeed than the inspector would have approved of had he been on the tpot, but they were punctually repaid, and the security given was undeniable. AhWhy and Co. seemed to do an enormous business. Every day messengers passed between us; every day carts of bullion arrived at or departed from our doors; every day rolls of notes amounting to many thousand dollars were eiohanged for the hard metal. The advances, however, developed to so great an extent that, satisfied as I was with the soundness and probity of Ah-Why and Co., I began to feel a little nervous in the event of such accidents as from time to time startle the commercial world, more especially as onoe or twice lately 1 had heard from brokers and other retailers of loo»l gossip one or two little things which did not seem to show A-Why and Co. in bo brilliant a light as that in which I had invested them.

I was talking to the comprador in my room upon this subject one afternoon, and giving it as my opinion that we should draw in our horns a little, when I heard a tremendous row outside. Opening the door, I beheld our shroffs engaged in a violent altercation with a Chinaman. All were talking aa loud as they could, and rattling out the uncouth gutturals of the ' Flowery Language ' with flashing eyes, flushed cheeks, and gesticulations whioh almost amounted to blow-giving. I enquired the reason. All parties turned on me, and showered on me in * pidgin English' their version of the case.

' Let's have the shroff first,' I said. So the shroff said— * This man talkee this no belong good note,' showing me a piece of paper-money ; ' I talkee he that it belong number one good, and that we no makey pay bad nott'B this Bide.' * And I say, sir,' put in the affronted Chinaman, ' that it belong bad note ; no can makey pass in that native town ; 'spose I wantchee bundled dollars, that Chinaman in native town talkee; no can—belong bad note.'

' Well, my friend,' said I; 'if you think It is a bad note, take another, and don't let us have any more disturbance.' The comprador gave him another note from a different box, and he went away, not without turning it over and over, however, as If he suspected further foul-play on our part. After a few minutes, another Chinaman came in, and there was further altercation ; then another and another, nntii the little vestibule of the bank was filled with an angry clamouring mob. This was more than an accident, so I rushed into the comprador's department and seized the noteboxes.

* Who presented these notes for payment ?' I asked.

'The messenger from Ah-why and Co.,' was the answer.

I started back and repeated,' Ah-why and Co.'

I examined every note. They appeared genuine, and I could not detect the slightest flaw in them; but I knew that what my little-practised eye failed to see the keen glance of a native ever on the alert for decept'on and fonl play, would detect in a minute. 'Oouldn.t you see that they were not good ?' I asked the comprador. •No, sir,' he replied, with unruffled dignity • ' 'spose man pay in large lot of notes, no can see if each one belong ploper.' • Well,' I said, *we must pay these fellows and keep every note.' Full of wrath and disgust I retired to my room and called In Heygate. We consulted for a long time together, and finally resolved to Bend for the European sergeant of police. i Sergeant Thomas Orthwaite, a huge forkshireman, appeared in due courso of time. 'look here, Orthwaite,' I said, when tho big man had settled himself on to the extreme edge of the smallest chair in the room; 'we've rather a nasty business on hand here. I want yon to go down to the office of Ah-why and Co. In the native town, keep your eyes about yon, and repoit If anything unusual is going on there. Don't show yourself too much, but dodge amongst the crowd in ordinary clothes.' 'All right, sir,' said Orthwaite. ' And,' said I, 'if you should see one of the partners—you know the man I mean—ask him politely but firmly to step up here and see me ; in fact, bring him with you ' The worthy sergeant saluted and left the room. ' Meanwhile,' I said to Heygate,' tell the comprador I want to see him.' Heypate went out, and re-appeared the next minute with a face expressive of the blankest astonishment. ' The comprador can't be found,' said he. 'Can't be found !' I echoed. ' Nonsense ! Shut up every door, and don't let a soul in or out.' None of the shroffs who sat cowering in a corner, impassive, unenergetic, and irritatingly calm, could tell us anything about him, exoept that he had left the office about ten minutes before, taking his keys with him. We examined the silver in the treasury—especially the last instalment of Ah-why and Co.'a deposit money. Every box weighed correctly ; the top • shoes ' of silver were there ; bnt underneath them, in every one of twenty boxes, were bars of iron and lead ! Against this so-called silver, and in payment of notes tendered to us, accepted by us, paid out by ns, aud returned as forgeries, Messrs Ah-why and Co. had received in all about fifty thousand dollars. I had never felt before, and I hope shall never feel again, the shame and humiliation which I experienced when I discovered that I had walked deliberately and calmly into a trap. I could have thrown myself into the great yellow river ia my mortification, and was wandering up and down the passage with my hands pressed tight to my brows, meditating some desperate move or other, when there came a loud knock at the outer door, and I let in Sergeant Orthwaite. ' Well, sergeant,' I said, ' what news?' ' There ain't been such a firm as Ah-why and Co. at the house you mentioned to me, not for a week,' replied Orthwaite ; ' the shutters be up, and noabody doan't know nothing about them. But I tell you who I did see, though, and that was that ere young Portygoose you used to have in the bank.' , I saw it all. My two compradors and Manero were Ah-why and Co, The mandsrln of Wu-chang was party to the gams, and so were the batches of friends who were so fond of looking at my treasury. Now that I was pretty sure ai to the identity of my foes—of all but the respectable gentleman who called upon me in the first instance on the part of Ah-why and Co. —I might get hold of them, but to regain the lost treasure was another matter. I knew, however, that they had been paid in hard dollars and sycee silver, which they could hardly as yet have had time to get rid of, so I instructed Orthwaite to have his men on the look-out at every possible point of exit, and sent a messenger to the captain of her Majesty's gunboat Crasher lying In the river, asking him to keep his eye on the waterside movements.

Then Heygate dined with me at the senior hong, and we talked over matters together. Heygate was a thoroughly good fellow, and had been an old chum of mine at Halleybury. We had stuck to each other through our Eastern careers, and I felt toward him as a confident and an equal, rather than as a sub rdinato. After dinner, we lit oar cigars and strolled down to the Band, seeing that the watchmen were at their posts, and that sll was shut np securely; for we had enjoined the strictest secrecy upon all connected with the bank, and were pretty sure that as yet Ah-why and Co. could not have heard of the discovery of their little game. Hankow Bund cuts but a poor figure when 'compared with that which rears its magnificent front to the river at Shanghai. One end is bounded by the offices and wharves of the various shipping companies, whilst the British Consulate terminates the other extremity. Between theea two points Heygate and I walked, tilting over the day, and making plans for immediate action. It was a oalm. clear winter's night, extremely cold, but without wind. Every sound from the ships moored in mid-steam, from the brilliantly lighted rooms of the houses facing the Bund, and from the coolie

dens of the native city, rang out clearly and distinctly; the stars shone as they only shine ia the far eastern sky, and a cold, thin moon threw a ray over the turbid waters cf the mighty river rolling on to the sea. (To he Continued.)