The conspirators interpreted the telegram from their messenger, reading “all right” to mean a favorable answer to the letter, and they were much elated. But the President, supposing that the messenger was only a clerk from the post-office, had said “all right” merely to indicate that he had received the letter and required his presence no longer. His suspicions were aroused after the messenger had left, when he ascertained that he had brought the letter at post-haste all the way from New York. That night Mrs. Grant wrote to Mrs. Corbin a note stating that the President had heard that Mr. Corbin was engaged in Wall street speculations, and if it were true he desired that he should immediately dissociate himself from them. This letter filled Gould with consternation. He and Corbin sat in the latter’s house all night reading and rereading the note and endeavoring to grasp the meaning between the lines. “If you show that note,” said Gould, finally, “I am a ruined man.” Corbin said he must obey orders and leave the street, but he insisted Gould should first take up the gold held in Corbin’s name and pay him the profits. Corbin had already received a check for $25,000. But Gould had already all the gold he wanted, and after standing for a while in silence by the door, his brow black with mystery, he left the house. The game was up. One stroke of a woman’s pen had punctured the dazzling bubble. A word from the President was sufficient to collapse the biggest corner on record. How to save himself? That was the question which, with knit brow and lips compressed with hidden excitement, Gould debated as he returned home that night. No thought for others who were deep in the game with himself. No thought for Fisk, his friend and associate. His mind labored for himself alone. He soon reached a conclusion. While there was yet time he would dump his heavy load of gold on the market and let others take what he could not carry. His only capital now was the early information he possessed of the President’s aroused suspicions; of his change of purpose. He did not tell even Fisk of Mrs. Grant’s letter to Mrs. Corbin, but let Fisk continue his purchases in ignorance of the real situation. He only remarked to Fisk that Corbin was getting weary and wanted his profits, or something to that purpose. Thursday--the day preceding Black Friday--Gould began his dumping process. “I sold that day,” he testified afterward, “and only bought enough to make the street think I was still a bull.” Here is Mr. Clews’ story of days immediately preceding the fatal Friday.