“I shall not go into court with them, Mr. Secretary, and it will not be necessary. Let me further illustrate. They sell one thousand shares say of Northwestern at $110, and I buy it. They take the $110,000 received by them from my broker and add to it ten or twenty thousand dollars for margin, and borrow from me the one thousand shares of Northwestern just sold me, depositing the one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty thousand dollars as security for the return of the borrowed stock. When Northwestern, under the pressure of their sales, descends to $100, they put up additional margin for the stock borrowed, and borrow more stock on the same terms. If they continue this process until they have forced Northwestern down to $80 or $70, and could then buy enough to replace the borrowed stock and call in the money they had deposited as ‘margin,’ they would make as profit the difference between the low price at which they purchased and the average of their sales. But if Northwestern should suddenly jump in price to a point higher than the value to which they had margined it, then my brokers would purchase, at this high rate, enough Northwestern to make good the stock loaned to them, using for that purpose the money deposited by the conspirators as ‘margin.’ I propose to let these gentlemen have all the rope they want, and when they attempt to turn and become buyers, I will spring stocks at once to their original price, and confiscate all their margins.”
“I will aid you, Mr. Morning, as you request, by keeping our transactions secret as far as possible, though I can’t promise you success in that. At least a dozen men will be required to print the gold notes in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and those men will know of the issuance of so vast a sum as $300,000,000. Half a dozen more must know of the removal of the two hundred millions of paper money now in the treasury vaults, and at least a dozen men will be needed to weigh and remove the gold bars from your warehouse. What is known to thirty men will soon, I fear, be known to the world. I will detail only discreet men, who shall work under pledges of secrecy, the violation of which shall cost them their places, but, after every precaution shall have been taken, who shall baffle the ubiquitous newspaper reporter in search of a ‘scoop’? He will crawl through the coal hole or the area railings. He will walk with the cats on the top of spikes and broken bottles. He will act as a car-driver, a barber, or a purchaser of old clothing. I verily believe that if he had lived in the olden days he would have coaxed Cæsar to reveal the plan of his next campaign, and wrested from the Egyptian Sphinx her secret. I fear, Mr. Morning, that the reporters will prove too much for us.”
“I have had some experience in keeping secrets, Mr. Secretary, and if you will permit me to direct the details of the movement, I will undertake that no inkling of it shall reach the ears of the reporters.”
“How will you avoid it, Mr. Morning?”
“Anticipating your consent and co-operation, Mr. Secretary, I directed the captain of my steam yacht, the Oro, to come here from New York without delay, and by to-night she will be moored in the Potomac, opposite the warehouse at the foot of Sixth Street. I propose that, with the officials and men whose duty it will be to test and weigh the gold bars, you shall examine them where they are in the warehouse. You will take the keys and take possession, and, if you desire, will detail guards for the warehouse who will not know what they are guarding. As soon as satisfied of the quality and quantity of the gold, you will direct the printing of three hundred millions of treasury notes, and will deliver me the two hundred millions of paper money now in the treasury vaults. The three hundred millions can be printed in bills of the denomination of $1,000, and may be packed in five good-sized trunks. The $200,000,000 now in the treasury, being in bills of smaller denominations, will require fifteen trunks for their accommodation. My four trusted men, who have been busy here for the past month cutting the gold bars out of their copper jackets, will procure fifteen trunks of different makes and marks, and after they have been filled with currency at the treasury vaults, will carry them in an express wagon, which I will purchase, to the railroad depot, and check them for New York in four different lots, purchasing two or three passage tickets for New York for each lot of trunks. They will go as ordinary baggage to New York, and there be taken to my office on Broadway, without exciting suspicion or comment. Two of the men will return from New York here, and a similar plan can be pursued with the $300,000,000, which will be printed in the meantime.”
“I do not yet see, Mr. Morning, how you propose to close the mouths of the treasury officials engaged in the business here.”
“I ask, Mr. Secretary, that for all this work you will select reliable men, unmarried, and who can be absent from their places of abode for a fortnight without comment. Inform each man selected that he will be employed in a matter requiring secrecy, and that it will involve an ocean trip. I propose that every man connected with the transaction, except yourself, Mr. Secretary, every man, from the official who tests the gold, to the official who packs the currency into the trunks, shall, from the time he enters upon the performance of his duty, until it is completed, remain in place. I will have food, and, if need be, cots for sleeping at the warehouse, and the placing of the currency in the trunks will not require more than an hour or two of time. Each man, as he completes his duty, will go on board the Oro, and when all are on board, the steamer will put to sea, with orders to cruise for two weeks and then return here. Each of the gentlemen taking this voyage will be presented by me with the sum of $1,000 for his services. The examination and weighing of the gold bars in the warehouse, and the packing and shipment of the two hundred millions of paper money now in the treasury, can, I think, be completed by to-morrow, and the Oro steam out to-morrow night, with a passenger list including the names of all those who have any knowledge of the fact that two hundred millions of treasury notes are on their way to New York, and that the government has $500,000,000 worth of gold bars in its vaults.”
“And how about the three hundred millions of notes ordered printed?”
“Those engaged in the printing can be similarly detailed, similarly instructed, and similarly dealt with. I have chartered the New Dominion, now lying at Norfolk, for a voyage to Port au Prince, on the island of Santa Domingo. She has steam up, awaiting orders. She will be here in time, and all those who have knowledge of the printing or shipment of the other three hundred millions, will, on the completion of their duties, go on board of her for a trip to Hayti, and, on their return a fortnight afterwards, receive the same gift of $1,000 each for his services.”
“Your plan is ingenious, yet simple, Mr. Morning, and seems likely to be effective. So far as this department is concerned, its execution will involve a departure from all rules and precedents, and I shall not escape hot criticism if I order it, especially from the New York papers controlled by the conspirators. But I see nothing really wrong or objectionable in it, and ‘nice customs courtesy to great kings,’ and you are a great king, Mr. Morning.”