THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 117 



had been in no haste to find the owner of the 

 property and it seemed judicious to present our 

 claim in the form of a demand rather than an ap- 

 peal for information. The heads of two of the 

 houses were liberal and likeable and offices are 

 always like their heads. The third man was no- 

 toriously tricky, although he had an international 

 reputation. I called first on one of the liberal 

 houses : 



"Lyons, why don't your people send us that 

 $25,000 delivered you by mistake? It ought to 

 have been returned two days ago." 



"I don't know what you are talking about, 

 Dimock. We have been receiving a lot of gold 

 from you, but it has all been paid for and our ac- 

 count balances to a dollar. You must have mis- 

 taken the house." 



"I'll go back and find out," said I. 



My next call resulted similarly, but as soon as 

 I entered the office of the tricky man I knew I 

 was on the trail of the gold. My somewhat per- 

 emptory demand was met by the lame excuse 

 that they had been doing so much in gold that 



