If the above were left without any addition. most people probably would quite rightly interpret it as retaliation on the part of a news paper reporter somewhat peeved at ing compelled to visit an unsa our district at ax unseasonable hour and having to come away without securing the expected firs! class story. However, there is much more to be said, For a long time past there has been working in Shanghai one of ths most audacious bands of swindlers with which the Far East has been coursed and they are known to have made a very considerable amount of money, running probably: into some lakhs." At the head of affairs is a Scandinavian who goes under a nom de plume well illustrative of his impudence, for it means nothing ess than the man who stands behind," He is, o wa: assisted by a Portuguese-Chinese, a' Georgian, a Jew, and a man of shifting "na Hionaisies who was once in the Rus-and is very well known im China. Possibly there are some others in the gang, and although the origins of all those referred to fare well known to the authorities, the latter could not vouch for the prospective buyer was introduced to "the man who stands behind" and in due course there would fol-Tow a sort of conference, with the choice collection of international crooks on one side of the table and the pigeons on the other. There would be a certain amount of bargaining, then the closure of the deal and the making of a contract. The most important part was that tthe gang never would take mone} {Perhaps a trifle of $10,000 in cash to pay immediate expenses, but they would ask for anything from lakh up to eight lakhs as a gua antee of good faith and this could be given in the form of a draft which would be placed with the contract in an envelope which was sealed in the presence of the prospective purchasers and presented to the latter, Then the conference would break up with everybody ha
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.