of your capital from your
creditors?"

On hearing this precise and formal statement of his honorable
intentions, the coal-merchant trembled. His feelings of integrity would
not have been alarmed by a periphrasis, but this plain speaking shocked
him. "Oh, monsieur!" he protested, "I would rather blow my brains out
than defraud my creditors of a single penny that was rightfully theirs.
What I am doing is for their interest, you understand. I shall begin
business again under my wife's name; and if I succeed, they shall be
paid--yes, monsieur, every sou, with interest. Ah! if I had only myself
to think of, it would be quite different; but I have two children, two
little girls, so that----"

"Very well," replied M. Fortunat. "I should suggest to you the same
expedient as I suggested to your friend Bouscat. But you must gather a
little ready money together before going into bankruptcy."

"I can do that by secretly disposing of a part of my stock, so----"

"In that case, you are saved. Sell it and put the money beyond your
creditors' reach."

The worthy merchant scratched his ear in evident perplexity.
"Excuse me," said he. "I had thought of this plan; but it seemed to
me--dishonorable--and--also very dangerous. How could I explain this
decrease in my stock? My creditors hate me. If they suspected anything,
they would accuse me of fraud, and perhaps throw me into prison; and
then----"

M. Fortunat shrugged his shoulders. "When I give advice," he roughly
replied, "I furnish the means of following it without danger. Listen
to me attentively. Let us suppose, for a moment, that some time ago you
purchased, at a very high figure, a quantity of stocks and shares,
which are to-day almost worthless, could not this unfortunate investment
account for the absence of the sum which you wish to set aside? Your
creditors would be obliged to value these securities, not at their
present, but at their former value."

"Evidently; but, unfortunately, I do not possess any such securities."

"You can purchase them."

The coal-merchant opened his eyes in astonishment. "Excuse me," he
muttered, "I don't exactly understand you."

He did not understand in the least; but M. Fortunat enlightened him by
opening his safe, and displaying an enormous bundle of stocks and shares
which had flooded the country a few years previously, and ruined a great
many poor, ignorant fools which were hungering for wealth; among them
were shares in the Tifila