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484 After we had been operating six days with the money obtained from the treasury, I telegraphed to my confederate in Washington, stating how much had already been made, and asking whether I should keep on. The reply was, to give myself plenty of time, and to keep the thing going for ten days longer, and then close out, and return to Washington in time for the monthly reports to be made out. At the end of the ten days there was but five thousand dollars' worth of Confederate bonds remaining on our hands undisposed of.

I posted to Washington, and having notified my confederate there when he might expect me, he met me in the Capitol grounds, and I gave him a statement of the account between us as it then stood, turning over to him the borrowed money, and half of the profits of the speculations that had been carried on with it. He informed me that I was just in the nick of time, as the reports had not yet been made out, but they were about being, and he was beginning to get the least bit uneasy concerning me.

I continued to take an active part in such transactions as these for several months, travelling to and fro between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, and often having about me immense sums of money. At length, however, I became afraid to risk it any longer, as Colonel Baker had commenced his investigations in the treasury department, and accordingly went out of the business of money-making for the time being. I did the fair thing by the treasury people in giving them a hint with regard to Baker, and then made haste to get out of the way until the storm should blow over.

As things turned out, it was not, by any means, as much of a storm as I expected it to be. Baker failed to strike the right trail, and the revelations which he made, while sufficiently scandalous, were with regard to matters of very secondary importance, and he dallied so much with these that the scamps were able to get ready for him. This treasury investigation did not do very much credit to anybody concerned in it. Baker blundered badly, and failed to get the main facts, which he could and should have gotten. He, however, succeeded in proving in a most positive manner that the moral characters of certain prominent officials were about as bad as they could be, and that they were in every way improper persons to hold the important positions they did. Despite the disgraceful disclosures that were made