Hood looked at the man before him in undisguised admiration of his cunning. “And did you likewise send missionaries to China with your opium cargoes?” he asked.
Ames chuckled. “I once sent Borwell himself to Hongkong on a boat loaded to the rails with opium. We had insisted on his taking a needed vacation, and so packed him off to Europe. In Bombay I cabled him to take the Crotus to Hongkong, transportation free. That was my last consignment of opium to China, for restrictions had already fallen upon our very Christian England, and the opium traffic was killed. I had plans laid to corner the entire opium business in India, and I’d have cleaned up a hundred million out of it, but for the pressure of public sentiment. However, we’re going to educate John Chinaman to substitute whiskey for opium. But now,” glancing at the great electric wall clock, “I’ve wasted enough time with you. By the way, do you know why this Government withheld recognition of the Chinese Republic?”
“No,” replied Hood, standing in anticipation.
“Thirty thousand chests of opium,” returned Ames laconically. “Value, fifty million dollars.”
“Well?”
“Ames and Company had advanced to the English banks of Shanghai and Hongkong half this amount, loaned on the opium. That necessitated a few plain words from me to the President, and a quick trip from Washington to London afterwards to interview his most Christian British Majesty. A very pleasant and profitable trip, Hood, very! Now tell Willett I want him.”
Hood threw his chief another look of intense admiration, and left the room. Willett’s entrance followed immediately.
“Get Lafelle here some time to-day when I have a vacant hour,” commanded Ames. “Cable to acting-Bishop Wenceslas, of Cartagena, and ask him if an American mining company is registered there under the name of Simití Development Company, and what properties they have and where located. Tell him to cable reply, and follow with detailed letter.”
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. “The Congregation of the Sacred Index has laid the ban on––what’s the name of the book?” He drew out a card-index drawer and selected a card, which he tossed to the secretary. “There it is. Get me the book at once.” He seemed to muse a while, then went on slowly. “Carlos Madero, of Mexico, is in New York. Learn where he is staying, and arrange an interview for me. Wire Senator Wells, Washington, that the bill for a Children’s 109 Bureau must not be taken from the table. That’s final. Wire the Sequana Coal Company that I want their report to-morrow, without fail. Wire Collins, at Avon, to tell the Spinners’ Union I have nothing to discuss with them. Now send Hodson in.”
As Hood was chief of the Ames legal department, and Willett the chief of his army of secretaries, so Hodson was the captain of his force of brokers, a keen, sagacious trader, whose knowledge of the market and whose ability in the matter of stock trading was almost uncanny.