began to feel very uneasy about our proceedings,
and at last requested to see our banker's book
but was put off by being told that it was in the
hands of the committee, who were alone
responsible for the working of our balance at the bank,
and could not have the books overhauled until
the six months for which they held office were
expired. I began to suspect my colleagues as
not over and above straight in their walk, and
to have serious thoughts of shaking myself clear
of the whole affair as soon as I possibly could.

Our weekly board meetings continued, and
new propositions for life or fire insurances, or
loans, were brought forward. I observed,
however, with increasing distrust, that, whereas all
life or fire insurances that could be obtained
were accepted almost without inquiry, no loans
were entertained unless the proposed borrower
was either a member of the board, or a friend
of some director.

By degrees my eyes became still more and
more opened to the snare into which I had
allowed myself to be entrapped. Thus one day
I received a note from an individual whose
name I had never heard of, asking leave to call
upon me at my private residence, on business
connected with the Benevolent Insurance
Company. Thinking it was some person who
wanted a situation as clerk, or an appointment
as agent, I answered that if he would call the
following day at ten o'clock I would see him.
He came as appointed, and a more villanous,
sinister-looking specimen of humanity I never
set eyes on. I asked him his business, and he
replied, that, being in want of a loan, he was
about to send in a proposition to the Benevolent
office, and now wanted to "square the business"
—as he expressed it—with me before it came
before the board. Being at a loss to know
what he meant, I asked him to speak in plainer
terms, when he gave me to understand in very
clear Anglo-Saxon, that for every "fiver" I got
him in the way of a loan, there would be "five
bob" at my service. At first I thought the
fellow was mad, but after a time got out of him
that he was merely doing what he and others
had done before at our office, in "squaring" one
of the directors.

Being anxious to see how the directors who
had given notes-of-hand in payment of their
shares would meet their engagements, I waited
with no little impatience for the expiration of
the three months when the drafts would fall
due. As no notice was taken of the
circumstance at the first meeting after the notes were
payable, nor yet on the following board day,
I ventured to ask the question whether or not
they had been met. The reply I got was, that
this was an affair in the hands of the financial
committee, who were alone responsible for the
monetary arrangements of the company. This,
however, I would not stand, and, being
determined to carry my point, I wrote an official
letter to the chairman, telling him that
unless I was permitted at the next meeting
to examine into the matter, I would write a
letter to the City editors of the Times and
Daily News, exposing the whole concern as it
deserved.

To this letter I received no answer, except a
simple acknowledgment of its due receipt from
the secretary; but at the next meeting of the
directors, the "bills payable" book was laid upon
the board-room table, and I observed, with as
much surprise as pleasure, that each of the notes-
of-hand had been met, and I therefore made
certain that we had—after deducting for loans
advanced to various people—a balance at our
banker's of at least six or seven thousand pounds.
Not being enough of a business man, I did not
examine further, but took for granted that
things in general with us were not so bad as
they seemed.

Matters went smoothly enough for a few weeks,
until at a board meeting we received legal notice
that a certain old.lady, whose life was insured
in our office for five hundred pounds, had been
gathered to her fathers, and that payment of the
policy upon her life would be demanded within
the usual term of fifteen days. When the matter
was mentioned before the directors, I could not
help observing that the secretary and one or two
members of the board looked exceedingly blank.
I did not, however, think much of the
circumstance until next board day, when it was
proposed by one of the medical men present, that
the policy for which we were liable should be
disputed; for he believed the old lady to have
been some four or five years older than she had
told us she was.

This proposition I most earnestly protested
against. I contended that, even if we could, by
proving the old lady to be older than she was,
save the whole five hundred pounds due on the
policy, it would be most suicidal in us to do so,
for it would surely prove the last insurance we
should ever obtain. To this I was answered,
that, if we could save five hundred pounds by
it, it would be worth while to run the risk.
The board broke up without coming to any
resolution.

On our next board day, to my great surprise
none of the directors, except the ex-brewer,
the secretary, and myself, were present. This
was the more surprising, as the money (five
hundred pounds) for the policy which had
fallen due, ought to have been paid at this
meeting. But as by our articles of
association every cheque had to be signed by
at least three directors, and countersigned by
the secretary, it became impossible for us to
move in the matter: so we simply requested the
secretary to write to the parties concerned, and
tell them that their claim should be settled on
the next board day. In the mean time, in order
to prevent there not being enough directors
present on the following board day, I took the
trouble to write to them all in my own name,
begging them, as they valued the good name of
the company, to attend on the next board day
and settle the first claim ever brought against
the office. The ex-brewer countersigned this
letter.

But, so far from my appeal being of any