The Sultan's Draft.

Thames Star, Volume XXXX, Issue 10448, 20 September 1902, Page 7 (Supplement)

The Sultan's Draft.

BY GEORGE DAULTON,

The outer door of Hozelton's office closed, lea.v'inig him and his friend in a. silence that was urging eachi man to adjust his thoughts to what had just happened and to what should be said lirst. "Confound it, Hozeltou," broke out De Loss, "I didn't intend to see the amount of that cheque. It fluttered my way and I couldn't help it. I had no* curiosity, and I .never dreamed it was for such a stunning amount." "Never mind, Joe," returned Hozelton, asi he arose to stand before t-hio window withi his hands in his pockets, while he ran his eye far down, the many-storied business Pueblo aiii the ■opposite aide of thte street-gorge. "I didn't mind your seeing" it." He wheeled about and rested his hand on his friend's shoulder. "De Loss, it's been oni my mind a long time to tell you the story of thei Sultan's Draft." "The Sultan's Draft!' exclaimed' De Loss, "the amount was princely. I ltnew you had) done well, but— " "Oh, I am not. speaking of the cheque. You didn't suppose I would, even, if I were rich enough, give nearly twenty-five thousand dollars to the solicitor for the refuge, fund?" Hozelton chuckled with, pure joyousness. "I don't believe I have made enough yet to play that much; against the Unspeakable Turk. At any rate, I know I wouldn't if it were not for the' Sultan's Draft." "The 'Sultan's. Draft! In* hea.ven's .name what do you mean by the Sultan's Draft?" cried De Loss. -. Hozeltoni nodded 1' and, threw a, look in: the direction of ' the busy typewriter. De Loss turned in his swivel chair and swung the glassi door to . with ai thrust- of hisi foot. "Well, De Loss, we have been through a lot since we were boys, but you weren't in on this deal. It was whem the panic caught' me.' For weeks I hung on .by my eyelids while I tried to pull my businessl through. How I came out of it I-., never told, ■and you. may be sure Oshkosh didn't, not he.- Yes, old 'Os-htkosh.' Raude"baiiffh, dead and gane to glory, peace to 1 his great, big soul! He was at the bottom of it. It was tricky, and it was awfully risky, but old man Raude baugh—God bless him!!—gave me the chance, and with: Americanl gall and luck I did the rest. "Oshkosb had 1 allowed me an overdraft at his bank for far more than,' my standing would warrant. Unexpectedly thiings, one after another, dropped on me. Bills payable were fired into me without mercy like bullets, and bills receivable were fired "back to me ast worthlessl aid paper wads. All the resources I had were strained to the uttermost to make one dollar fill the need of five. At last, after careful figuring,' I found that I must have fifteen, thousand! dollars before thirty days or go up. "Raudebaugh, you know, Joe always treated me like his own son, and I knew if- he could do anything to help me it would be done; if not, and I had to let go, it was only fair he should know it and his bank should have the advantage- of putting in its claim first. . "I went down to the bank as blue as that pennant over there on the Tiotel." went on, Hozelton. "Oshkosh and I went through the business together, canvassing it bit by bit; the good old dog did his best to figure it out, but it seemed too tough a proposition. "'Sony far you, James,' my boy,' he kept saying, as he studied it. 'but it looks very bad. Fifteen thousand dollars—thirty days—thirty?—' and' he'd look up at me and I'd nod my head. "We. sat a long time thinking it aver, Oshkosh totally lost mi it and checking off the things he was going over in his mind with his pencil om the blotting pad. " 'T-bSs bank is going to save you if It can, James, my son; but I'm afraid. nothing can be done.' . - : „.; "At "this oracular drone my, heart •want up and them sank down, though not so far down as it hack been. After a bit Raudebaugh; looked' up slyly.

" 'Don't you know somebody, James, you can draw on 1!' — " 'What for fifteen thousand dollars I' "'Nobody?' " "This is far too serious for me to joke about, Mr Raudebaugh.' " 'James, son, don't you know some body you may draw on, somebody away off—a long, long 1 way off? "Oshkosh began to fairly purr his temptation, and for a moment my hope leaped' up as I caught hiis idea and the breath, 'of relief it would give. . " 'S'ometbody in Thiblet, or Aychr angel, or up the Congo?" "The sportiiig spirit that had: been h's dormant second self, or had been bound and captive through ai long life of business integrity, raged in him. 011 the mere thought of a flyer. I tell you he fairly sang his allurement like a siren, and I, though sick with dread of its criminal trickery, sweetened to the idea. . "fN'o, but I mean it,' coaxed the old man. 'Now, suppose I draw —I d-r-a-a-aw ' and 1 while I sulked in the despairing collapse that followed my second and better judgment of the thing—although I was even, them .paying debts like mad in my imagination on thie money this impossible possibility might give me for a few days—Oshkosh scratched away an! a block of drafts. He finished and tossed it before me on the extension leaf of his desk. "It was a draft, on the Sultan of Turkey for fifteen thousand dollars, a.t sight. "Sign it, sign it,' Raudebaiugh urged; 'in; five, minutes you shall have, the money to your credit. This will bei the cleverest pieqp of cheque-kiting ever done.' "I signed it before I knew it, making a kind of plunge of it, and withy a feeling of a. gamble on liberty and life at a throw. "I buried my face in my hands whan the old man went out to the counting room with the condemned draft to be passed to my credit. Heaven only knows what the clerks thought. " 'It's all right, James, my boy,' said Raudebaugh, again at his desk. 'You may draw your cheques, but i'emember the day of reckoning. Be ready with, the cash to stand the return of the Sultan's Draft.' ' "I must have gazed at him as blank a.si a fish. " 'Oh, cheer up James, we'll come out of this all right. Do you think you could get an option on the Conqueror mine for anything like a reasonable price?' " 'Wjeli, it hasnl'tl been for sale,' said I, dully, 'but if any one can buy it at a fair figure I suppose I am he. If- the cash were coming ta pay for it.' - " •■ "'Maybe here's your chance/ said O'shikosih, and taking up a letter I passed it over to me; themi he turned ■to writ©, digging away with his pen i at a wonderful rate on something that wasi juicy to him. The letter was from a capitalist, who was. at the head of a, syndicate that was offering to buy developed mining property. It was evident they meant, business, and had' millions' back of them. "While I was reading and Oshkoshi was still writing like a fury, a clerk slipped in with a basket containing the usual grist of papers that daily passes through, a bank, all made up ready to sign and mail, and on: the top of the, heap wasi thei Sultan's Draft. I give you my word of honaur, Joe, I grew sick .again at sight, of it- , ' „ ; . "The old mam, finished' with a final skate across the paper as the clerk passed out. ' ; , "Well, James, 'son., wha,t do you think of it?' ha said, wheeling around to me. I'm sure the Conqueror could be sold! if the price isn't, out of sight. If you can swing th.at deal, my boy, you,, may snap your fingers at the whole pack .of your debts, and the Sultan's Draft, too. Your commissions on the sale would', amount to five times, the sum, of your present needs. Da you think ■ you, can mate it go through in -six weeks? That's about the limit of time I am; giving to the return of thie hoax. "'Ob, my God I we can't count on

that im such a desperate emergency as this!' I cried, in a. panic. " 'Keep cool, James, keepl cool. Sit on the safety valve and throw im your bacon and coal oil. You must beat in the race with some of your plans, ■and th's offers another very good op-, port-unity to win out. Now look here,' Oshkosh continued, taking thiei paper he had just been, working over, "that draft has to have something to jo | withi it, and this is what I have made : but if any soul on earth cam. tell what it is, it's more than T can.' He passed it over. "It was all the thing by righjta ought to be called. Whether it was- a.n invoice, or a bill of sale, or of lading, or a deed, a mortgage, or just, common barnyard hen-tracks, as the old man said, no one could, tell. It looked like a paper of tremendous import,' but it was only meaningless penwork,. that didn't contain a word to make it intelligible. But it was beautiful to look- at. The pen strokes were as decorative as Chinese characters, and seemingly as precise as German script. Anyone might have told' me it was 'Sanscrit, on* Runic, or Cuneiform-, or Aztec, on- Choctaw and- I would have believed it —or for that matter, a- design for an: Oriental rug or an Arabian mural decoration; it would have- been all the same to me. Why, Joe,-what was intended: to convey the idea, of a signature and ended in. that lasft almighty skate of Os-h----kosh's beat Spinner's, and wasi a masterpiece finer than that of the Sultan' himself, that they inlay in mother-of-pearl at the tops of tabourets. 'Heaven help' the British Museum if it ever meeits up with that dummy document of Oshkosh's •, savants will waste their lives trying to decipher it. "Well, that worthless thing the old, man fastened withl a big bank pin to that worthlessi.draft, and' addressed it to; his correspondent here in Chicago. "There you are James, my boy; bid it good-bye, but be ready to greet 1 it withl amount on demand! when it comes back. Now go 'long about your business.' "I did go about.'my business, you can bank on that. I fairly tore up the earth to be ready toi meet the return of that draft. 'Why, I'couldn't, think of that infernal draft that I did not imagine the;. banks it went through, and the 9tir it must have made in some of them. Of the blooming young clerks that handled it— ! and reverently, too, good Lord!—and of the old timers they appealed to, perhaps, who were afraid to take it as a joke. "None of my schemes positively failed, but! they-tantalised! me with numberless delays that aite into my nerves like. lyee. Still the return of the draftl was providentially delayed. Then., wheo each, day dawned with the drea'di that it would brimg the crack of doom, the consummation! of the 'Conquerorl mine deal became assured. The final settlement of the sale that would give me money to burn ' ran neck and: neck -with the return of that daredevil draft, that would bring'me ruin -and disgrace. "A.t last a bank messenger came down to the works to tell me Oshr kosh wa.ntedl to see- me immediately. It was a thoughtless thing for the old man- to do—he knew my condition —why, I thought of suicide as I went up town! i ■ "Old 1 Oshkoah was 1 waiting for me in the private office, looking, as usual, fatherly and kindly serious. But the door had hardly closed on us when he flew at me. and beat and pounded me on the back, and shouted an under tone of some good news in- my ear; I couldn't make out what. "Look, loo,k James, my boy!"' he erred snatching up a bit of paper. The Sultan's "Draft, the Sultan's Draft!' "The engraved voucher swam before my eyes, but T giddily saw en6ugli— James Hozelton —fifteen thousand dollars.—the 'Sultan's Draft had been paiid!" "Well, what- do you think of tWat." marvelledi De Loss. •''Fromi that on; it seemed that everything -came my way." resumed Hoseltom. "More 1 than a hundred thousand Dame pouring in on me mi the) next few weeks. But R'audebaugh and I

'never tired! of speculating; on' the reason the Sultan honoured the draft,. I spent a good deal trying to clear up the: mystery. Of course the B'ubi lime Porte received it through! tfo'fl usual channels, London 1 and Frankfort, but wheni the Yildiz closed its iron) gates upon it its story was lost. Members of- the Young Turk ■ parity, strung across the continent of Europe, all bitter against the. Ottoman administration, tried) to help me, but with-' out success. Maybe ib was Oshkoshi'a hieroglyph...didl the business. At all evemitsi the* draft was paid, and no bother taken with consular or diplomatic go-betweens. "The fifteen thousand dollars didft'ti belong 1 to me, yet. how could it be returned? As the; years passed, and it kept growing, with' interest, I thought of giving it, as conscience) 'money, to a. dozen' charities. I was still looking for a> place to put the despot's money where it would do the most good when the Armenian: massacres gave me my ideal chance." "I'd like to havei seen Oslvkosh's document," said De Loss, as the two friends contentedly lit their cigars I ■with, the same match.