ARTHUR.T Stories ------500 Million Dollars --II---Page 09

The General in glowing terms paints his efforts to run down the

Lespinasse conspirators. Although suffering horribly from his fractured
tibia (when he fell into the "hole"), and from other dire ills, he has
"not taken the slightest rest." He has been everywhere--"New Orleans,
Florida, to the city of Coney Island"--to corner the villains, who "flee
in all directions." The daughter, Marie Louise, through whom the General
expects to secure a compromise, has left for New Orleans. "Wonderful
coincidence," he writes, "they were all living quietly and I believe had
no intention whatever to travel, and two days after my arrival in New
York they all disappeared. The most suspicious of it all is that the
banker, his wife and children had left for Coney Island for the summer

and to spend their holidays, and certainly they disappeared without
saying good-by to their intimate friends.... I have the whole history of
Tessier's life and how he made his fortune. There is a family for the
use of whom we must give at least a million, for the fortune of Tessier
was not his alone. He had a companion who shared his troubles and his
work. According to the will they were to inherit one from the other; the
companion died, and Tessier inherited everything. I do not see the
necessity of your trip to New York; that might make noise and perhaps
delay my negotiations." Then follows the list of properties embraced in
the inheritance:

PROPERTY AND PERSONAL ESTATE OF THE HEIRS

1    The land of Central Park ceded to the

city of New York, of the value of              $5,000,000.00

2    He had at the National Bank--United
     States Bank--deposited in gold--twenty
     to thirty million dollars. He

never withdrew anything; on the

contrary, he always deposited his income

there                                             25,000,000.00

3    The big house on Broadway, Nos. 100
     to 118, of twenty-five stories, to-day

the largest bank in New York                     5,000,000.00

4    The house on Fifth Avenue, No. 765,
     facing Central Park, to-day one of
     the first hotels of New York--Hotel

Savoy                                               8,000,000.00

5    House on Fifth Avenue, No. 767, facing
     Central Park, to-day the biggest

and most handsomest of American

hotels, where the greatest people and

millionaires stop--Hotel Netherland           20,000,000.00

6    Two coal mines at Folkustung in Texas          9,000,000.00

7    A petroleum mine in Pennsylvania

(Mexican frontier)                                6,000,000.00

8    Shares of silver mine at Tuxpan,

Mexico                                            10,000,000.00

9    The house at Tuxpan and its grounds,

Mexico                                                 15,000.00

10  The pleasure home and grounds in
     Florida (New Orleans) in the city of

Coney Island                                         500,000.00

11  The house which covers all the Esquare
     Plaza (no number because it is all
     alone). It is an immense palace,
     with a park and gardens, and waters
     forming cascades and labyrinths,

facing Central Park                             12,000,000.00

12  The block of houses on Fifth and Sixth
     Avenues, facing on this same Central
     Park, which, as all these grounds belong
     to him, he had put up. They

are a hundred houses, that is called

here a block                                      30,000,000.00

13  He is the owner of two railroads and
     owns shares of others in Pennsylvania

and Canada                                       40,000,000.00

14  A line of steam and sail boats--Atlantic.
     The Pennsylvania and the Tessier

and other names                                 100,000,000.00

15  A dock and a quay of eight hundred
     meters on the Brooklyn River for

his ships                                       130,000,000.00

16  Several values and debts owed him and

which at his death had not been collected       $40,000.00

$390,555,000.00

Which is in francs                   1,952,775,000

Plus 5 per cent                              976,388

Total in francs                       1,953,751,388

"Do you blame us?" asks Madame Valoie, as I listen as politely as possible to this Arabian Nights' dream of riches.

The letters continue: The General is surrounded by enemies, of which the
worst are French, and he is forced continually to change his residence

in order to escape their machinations. But all this takes money. How can

he go to Tuxpan or to the city of Coney Island? "You cannot know nor

imagine the expense which I have had to discover that which I have

discovered. I cannot live here like a miser, for the part I represent

demands much of me. Every moment I change my residence, and that costs
money." He adds a little touch of detail. "I must always be dressed
properly, and laundry is very dear here--a shirt costs twenty-five cents
to wash, and there are other necessary expenses.... You have forgotten
to tell me if you have received the album of views of New York in which
I have indicated the properties of the deceased, I squeeze your hand."

"Yes, and our purses too," adds Madame Valoie. "Would M'sieu' care to see the album of the Tessier properties? Yes? M'sieu' Lapierre, kindly show the gentleman."

Lapierre unbuttons his homespun coat and produces a cheap paper-covered blank book in which are pasted small photographs and woodcuts of various well-known New York buildings. It is hard not to smile.

"M'sieu' will see," continues Madame Valoie, "that the dream had

something substantial about it. When we saw these pictures in Bordeaux we were on the point of giving up in despair, but the pictures convinced us that it was all true. Moreover, just at that time the General
intimated that unless he had more money he might yield to the efforts of the Lespinasse family to buy him off."

Madame Valoie points vindictively to a certain paragraph in one of the letters: "Of course they are convinced that I am not for sale, not for anything.... To my regret, my very great regret, I shall be forced to capitulate if you do not come to my aid and that quickly, for I repeat to you that my funds are all gone."