at I
have had to close the speculation rather suddenly, and I fear, as the
following illustrative figures will show in a fashion that not only
deprives me of the pleasure of enclosing them a cheque for Profits,
but obliges me to announce to them that their cover has disappeared.
The Stocks with which I operated were "Drachenfonteim Catapults,"
"Catawanga Thirty-fives," and "Blinker's Submarine Explosives." The
ILLUSTRATION, I hoped, _would have stood as follows_:--

L100 invested in Drachenfonteim Catatpults,
showing profit of 1 per cent....L100

L100 invested in Catawanga Thirty-fives,
showing profit of 21/2 per cent....L250

L300 invested in Blinker's Submarine Explosives,
showing profit of 3 per cent....L900

Gross Profits....L1250

Unfortunately, however, the real figures came out rather differently,
for they stood, I regret to say, as under:--

L100 invested in Drachenfonteim Catapults,
at a loss of 5 per cent....L500

L100 invested in Catawanga Thirty-fives,
at a loss of 7 per cent....L700

L300 invested in Blinker's Submarine Explosives,
at a loss of 4 per cent....L1200

Total loss....L2400

This, I need scarcely say, has at present not only eaten up every
halfpenny of cover, but a great deal besides; and I am not sure that I
shall not have to come down on my clients to make good the balance. I
cannot account for the result, except from the fact that a new clerk
read out the wrong tape; and when I telephoned to my West-End Private
Inquiry Agent about these very three Stocks, he appears not to have
heard me distinctly, and thought I was asking him about Goschens, the
old Three-per-Cents., and Bank Stock, about which, of course, he could
only report favourably. It is an awkward mistake, but, as I point out
to all my clients, one must not regard the Dealer as infallible. These
things will occur. However, I am going to be more careful in future;
and I may as well announce now, that on Monday next I am about to open
a new Syndicate Combination Pool, with a Stock about which I have made
the most thorough and exhaustive inquiries, with the result that I
am convinced an enormous fortune will be at the command of anyone who
will entrust me with a sufficiently large cheque in the shape of cover
to enable me to realise it.

For obvious reasons I keep the name of this Stock at present a dead
secret. Suffice it to say, that the operation in question is connec