The Third National would in the first place realize a profit of from four to five per cent.

on the original transaction; and as it took the Western bank-notes at a discount, it also made a profit on those.
There was another man his father talked about--one Francis J.Grund, a famous newspaper correspondent and lobbyist at Washington, who possessed the faculty of unearthing secrets of every kind, especially those relating to financial legislation.

The secrets of the President and the Cabinet, as well as of the Senate and the House of Representatives, seemed to be open to him.

Grund had been about, years before, purchasing through one or two brokers large amounts of the various kinds of Texas debt certificates and bonds.

The Republic of Texas, in its struggle for independence from Mexico, had issued bonds and certificates in great variety, amounting in value to ten or fifteen million dollars.