, beginning at the
exchange column. The first thing that caught his eye was, "Bondavara,
sixty _below par_."

A printer's error; and a very serious one! The printer was drunk when
he printed it. The fellow ought to be put in prison. If there is any
police in Vienna, or justice in the government, such a thing should
not pass unpunished; it is enough to shake the nerves of any man not
made of iron. If this is not a disturbance of the peace, I don't know
what you can call it.

Then he took another paper. The same mistake! He went through the
round of the daily papers, and found that all the printers must have
chosen this day for a drinking-bout, as each one made the same error
between _above_ and _below_ par.

Csanta was convinced that some great mistake had been made; but as he
could not rest until it was cleared up, he telegraphed to Spitzhase.

A telegram from Spitzhase crossed his. It ran:

"Great misfortune. The Bondavara mine is on fire.
Great panic. The shares are sixty below par. Every one
is selling."

Csanta cursed and swore with rage. "The devil take him! Sixty below
par; a loss of sixty thousand gulden! That means for me extinction.
Where is the cord and the nail? Let me hang myself! Six casks full of
silver gone! I shall murder some one! I must go to Vienna. I shall
knock the whole place about their ears like a card house if I don't
get back my silver. I didn't take my money to Vienna to leave it
there."

He foamed like a madman, dragged his bonds out of his safe, threw them
on the floor and stamped upon them.

"Villains! knaves! paper beggars! It is you who have eaten up my
silver crowns! You have swallowed my sixty thousand silver crowns! I
will tear you in pieces! I will cut my crowns out of your stomachs! I
will kill you dead!"

The upsetting of his safe had disturbed his papers. He suddenly
caught sight of a deed. He looked at it closely. His mood changed.

"What a fool I have been. I don't lose as much as my finger-nail. Here
is my young friend's signature. How lucky I didn't destroy this, or
light my pipe with it. He binds himself _at any time_, subject to my
desire, to take over a thousand shares _at par_. Ah, well done,
Csanta! You are an old bird not easily caught with chaff. I am saved,
thanks to my own sagacity, to my prudent, far-seeing nose that smells
danger ahead. This letter covers all loss. So far as I am concerned,
stones may fall from the sky. I am safe."