Contraband of War

CA D I H CK I N G K ED D W N AT LAST U P N APPADAC . C K P . O LOO O O A T ALE OF T HE HISPAN O-AMERICAN ST RUGG LE M . S H I E . P L A U ! L l C! ‘ ’ a n : un n w n a ! n s . f v m y pa m mx . I R I N B Y . LL T AT A . US O S ! PEA RS E LO N D O N 1 899 CONTRABAN D OF WAR A T ALE OF T HE HISPAN O-AMERICAN ST RUG G LE H I M . P . S E L A UT HO R 0? ‘ ’ ‘ ’ H MAN S T E LER H L W T E A S , T E YE LO DA N G ER, ET C . W I TH I LL T ATI N B Y A. US R O S ! PEARS E LO N D ON G R A N T ' R I C H A R D S 9 HEN RIETTA STREET 1 899 C O N T E N T S CHA PT ER G N N O F I . A E TLEM A S PAIN MM U L APPADACCA II . I AN E D CK P O CK LI F TS HIS ARM III . I . H ING RU LO K A E IV . NNING THE B C D Y OU D DOLL R I N P C V . SIXT TH SAN A S S E IE P RD K VI . A S ANIA THIN S O L V. VII . SAX N ATIN P O M F LEET VIII . THE HANT IX . CA BLE CUTTING H A E LA I N P C X . THE C MB R S EE H I N EE W ATE S XI . D P R I - XII . THE T TLE DEEDS XIII . THE NIGHT ! XIV . O RGANI ING A VI CTO RY XV . SANTIAGO XVI . THE BATTLE XVII . THE CH ASE ’ ‘ N XVIII . THE jA E R I C HA RDSON ! XIX . THE PR I E B OF EN D XX . THE EGINNING THE HA SE XXI . THE C A XXII . THE B TTLE XXIII . THE MA RR IAGE L I ST OF I LL U STRAT I O N S K O K DI C P . H C IN G LOOK ED D OW N AT LA ST UPON APPADACCA T o fa oe p 2 3 HE LOOK ED AT HER A M I N UTE 3 1 HE STARTED BACK 5 1 ON E MAN ONLY TURNED T O K N I F E HI M I I I THE V ETE EN W I TH D SH RE . S P R , A IVING RU , PASSED THROUG H I T ’ T wo MU! ! LES POINTI N G AT HOCK ING S HEAD THE MU! ! LE POI N TED UPW ARD MEN W ERE SEEN W I LDLY LEAPI N G C o n tr ba n d o f W r a a . CH APT E R I . A GENTLEMAN OF S PAI N . I C C I D K P . HO K NG weighed , stark naked as he u st - sto n e was born , j thirty two . When he put his left hand behind his back , S and cocked out his thick , hort right leg at Wall Street , with the intention of sending the biddings up , and by hook or by crook of ‘ ’ getting there , you saw solidity . H e was a u fle sh tr e m e n sort of mon ment in , conveying a dous suggestion of heaviness . H e did not look like a man he was like a Brobdingnagian paper weight . S H is right leg was not really hort, as we have said ; he was , in reality , a tall man , only he looked squat in proportion . H is two jaws seemed to hang on his shoulders . 2 Contraband of War I n addition , he carried a broad , thick beard , and above his superfluously large body a small - fl bullet head , at behind , of which the hair was ’ always c u t as short as a convict s . H is face was not an ugly one it was only a distinctly vulgar one , like everything else about the man . He was one of the shrewdest fellows in the world . Sometimes , early in the morning, he W would leap out of bed , blow through a histle in his bedroom , send his hoarse, rasping voice through a tube , and do a deal that would set New York and Throgmorton Street talking for a week . When he took a dislike to a broker, to a — - fellow speculator and Dick P . Hocking was —it apt to take strange dislikes was , in general , S woe to that broker or peculator . H e had ’ once suddenly appeared on Change , and, off ’ his own bat, sent up three months fine paper 2 5 per cent . , for the purpose of smashing an Operator who had unconsciously thwarted him in a Greek Monopoly deal . I t was admitted that the price of S ilver was a matter depending on the will , or the whim , of Dick P . Hocking . I n Washington his back stairs influence was enormous for who did not know that H ocking , at a critical moment, had A G entleman of Spain Mc K in le thrown his huge weight into the y scale , and that had it been otherwise , things might ? have bee n otherwise also This powerful man , for whom the world , like some golden ! or silver! palace , seemed to have fl been specially built , had a thorn in the esh . Other rich men , to show that perfect happiness is not for man on the earth , suffer from weari d ness , from anxiety , from isease . From all this f Dick P . H ocking was exempt . But he suf ered from the thorn in his flesh . This thorn was called I mmanuel Appa dacca . Immanuel Appa da c c a was a man whom Dick P . Hocking had never seen . Yet H ocking n hated him worse than poiso . The man whom H ocking had seen , and W hom for a long time he thought he hated , was Josef Campos . Then , quite suddenly , by a mere Chance , he got to know that Campos , the visible , was only the hand , the agent , of Appa dacca , the invisible . So often had Hocking been crossed and whipped and outwitted by this unseen power, elem ox m o o/z on al this mysterious , that at last it might be said that the one remaining object of his life was to destroy it . ? v Who was J osef Campos E eryone knew . 1 —2 4 Contraband of War Who was I mmanuel Appa da c c a ? No one could say . The two known facts abo u t Appa da c c a were these—that he must be fairly rich and that he possessed the swiftest ship in which a man had ever crossed upon the deep . Now , it happened that , about six months before the outbreak of the war between Spain S e fio r and the States , one Canalejas, a Spanish O f M inister J ustice and of Finance, had come to the States , and in an interview with the President at Washington , had been told that the desire of America was to see an autonomous government in Cuba , and assistance given to ’ ‘ Re c o n c e n tr a do s — the though , of course , the States recognised the sovereign rights of Spain - nothing more . The interview, however , got abroad . And the consequence of this hint of the President ’ s was an immediate slight slump in ‘ Spanish on ’ Change everywhere , quotations going down from to nearly 5 5 . And the next day Josef Campos was reported to be realizing ic a n in M e x , , largely ‘ I nternals Peruvians and American Railways . To meet pressing liabilities ? I t was an inference ! Hocking snapped his doughy fingers . A G entleman of Spain 5 Spanish bonds , then , were the weak point of A a da c c a I mmanuel pp . I t was not certain , but he was in the state in which men jump at conclusions . I t was at least a hint Of light in the absolute darkness which had tormented him for seven years . H e already possessed in Cuba considerable territories of tobacco and cane estates . And S that night Dick P . H ocking lept in a Pullman , bound for Washington . H e plumped for war, or at least for a war — scare and he had enormous power . I f he had not a right to determine how Cuba ? was to be governed , who had I n the exciting months that followed down ‘ ’ crept Spanish on every Bourse in the world . They reached 45 they reached 40 . And the more Dick P . Hocking and a whole train of smaller men under his thumb pl u mped for war , the more isolated became the position u of J osef Campos , and the more g essable his embarrassments . But whosesoever was the brain that inspired him , Campos was well inspired . On Feb r ua r 2 y 3 , when the anticipation of trouble and the fear of dear money had already led to - a heavy fall in high priced securities, Josef ’ Campos at three O clock suddenly disposed of 6 Contraband of War a large handful of South American steamships , which were promptly taken up by H ocking ; and the whole of the funds realized by Campos were in half an hour invested in Argentine railways .

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