The great Lackson was now virtually acting
chairman, not by force of election, but by
the more powerful moral influence of success
and personal ability. The shareholders said to
each other that, after all, it was lucky enough
that Tillotson and the " slow-coach'' policy
had been shelved tor a time. The great Lackson
himself, still modest and utterly unexcited,
now and again threw out hints about a new El
Dorado that would all but dazzle their financial
eyes—-something to which the Roofing Company
was a mere faltering rushlight. That
was a mere experiment. They were only feeling
their way. The ultimate end that he saw
was universal absorption—-a gradual but gentle
devouring of every existing institution of the
sort. His colleagues were fretted and goaded
by these gorgeous glimpses, and at last one
day he was prevailed on to hint at a scheme
for a great Persian Bank concession from the
Shah; diamonds and rich stuffs, and all the
costly wares of the East, to be taken as securities;
loans to the Shah and to the emirs on their
personal security. The whole thing was in
train; but before this splendid scheme was
matured, some other events were to occur.

There had been disputes between masters
and workmen in the iron country which had
now gone on for some time without settlement,
until at last it came to the usual issue—-a strike.
This began with a mine or two, and a foundry
or two; but was spreading slowly. The first
mine-owner and the first foundry-proprietor
were beaten in the struggle, and had given in;
which was only a bonus held out to the others,
and soon the whole trade was on strike.

The secretary of the old company, looking
with rage and jealousy on the progress
of the Foncier, saw what profit was to be
made of the affair, and began to whisper,
How would the Roofing Company, or rather the
Foncier, for it was the same thing, carry out
their contract now? The contract was signed
long ago, a given time fixed, and not an ounce
of iron bought yet! In a few days other
people began to make the same remarks.

When the directors met the great Lackson,
he only smiled at them. Just what he anticipated.
His agents were at work, he said, buying
up shares hard and fast. Let the fools sell.
In a week the strike would be over; up would go
their shares, and who would be holding them
then? This view was all very well, but it did not
reassure the men of business. The hard-headed
old cashier and deputy manager, who had been
in banks all his life, and who had always looked
grave at the " dashing" proceedings of the
great Lackson, told some of the directors
privately, that he had made inquiries, and that
the great Lackson's agent had not bought a
single share of the Roofing Company, nay, that
he had been eagerly offering them for sale. In
financial operations, a feather, the weight even of
a bank-note, becomes a stronger and more
substantial argument than premises carried out to
most logical and irrefragable conclusion. The
rumour, whispered diligently and sent abroad
by designing persons that the Foncier and
the Roofing Company were virtually one, being
financially bone of each other's bone, had begun
to be accepted generally; and one day it was
found that the shares of the great Foncier were
beginning to fall slowly, first to a less pleasing
premium, then to par, and then to discount.
These were indeed evil days for the gorgeous
tabernacle—- for " Middle-age Jenkinson's"
pigeon-holes and sentry-boxes, his arcades and
plate-glass, his inverted frigate hulk which did
duty as a roof, the mahogany and magnificence
within, and for the forty thousand pounds paid
for the site.

There was a panic among the directors
as if the cholera had come among them, and
that day the great Lackson being absent , having
caught a heavy cold and lumbago at a grand
City dinner, the ancient cashier came with one
of his ledgers, and in a calm grave way said he
thought it was his duty to call the board's
attention to the state of Mr. Lackson's "private
account."

For the "good of the bank," it had been
found expedient that the great Lackson should
draw largely and without restraint, and the
board, now looking through his account, were
startled by the enormous sums that had been
drawn out and " placed " in his name. Latterly,
in the unbounded enthusiasm and confidence
which the success of the great Lackson
had excited, his proposal to bring some of
his numerous undertakings into connexion
with the bank had been accepted as a favour.
Now, in a panic and flutter, though indeed
there was no reasonable grounds for immediate
danger, it seemed almost certain that there
was ruin and dishonesty coming, and the lumbago
and heavy cold of this herculean Lackson,
who had often boasted that " he never had been
ill in his life," was the worst of all the symptoms.

What was to be done? The ancient cashier
was shut up with the secretary for two or
three hours until it got to five o'clock, and by
that hour they had discovered enough to make
their suspicions matter of perfect certainty.

What was to be done? Some one had gone
to the great Lackson, but could only see his
wife at her grand house, who said that Mr.
Lackson was very ill indeed, and could not be
disturbed. Then they thought of Mr. Tillotson;
he could restore order, or at least could give
help, and they wrote off a hasty note:

(Private.)      Foncier Bank, Five o'clock.
    My dear Tillotson. We have been looking
into the affairs of the bank, and have made some
discoveries which you should know of. I hear
you are well enough to see people. I mean
to call upon you about nine o'clock to-night,
I cannot go into detail here, but I will only
say that Lackson seems to have involved us
in the most helpless manner. Things, however,
I trust, will turn out better. But our
whole salvation depends on not a whisper getting
abroad until we can see our way. So burn
this the instant you have read it. For I hear
that. Smith is going about shaking his head,
and saying things about us. But I need not