quently together--George Falkner, for instance,
and others--were blind and unsuspecting. But--what of Lilith herself?

CHAPTER VIII.

DARK DAYS.

The share market at Johannesburg was rapidly going to the deuce.

Some there were who ardently wished that Johannesburg itself had gone
thither, before they had heard of its unlucky and delusive existence,
and among this daily increasing number might now be reckoned Laurence
Stanninghame. He, infected with the gambler's fever of speculation, had
not thought it worth while to "hedge"; it was to be all or nothing. And
now, as things turned out, it was nothing. The old story--a fictitious
market, bolstered up by fictitious and inflated prices; a sudden
"slump," and then--everybody with one mind eager to dispose of scrip,
barely worth the paper of which it consisted--in fact, unsaleable. King
Scrip had landed his devoted subjects in a pretty hole.

"You're not the only one, Stanninghame--no, not by a long, long chalk,"
said Rainsford ruefully, as they were talking matters over one day. "I'm
hard hit myself, and I could point you out men here who were worth tens
of thousands a month ago, and couldn't muster a hard hundred cash at
this moment if their lives depended on it--worse, too, men whose
overdraft is nearly as big as their capital was the same time back."

"I suppose so. Yet most fellows of that kind are adepts at the fine old
business quality of besting their neighbours, one in which I am totally
lacking, possibly owing to want of practice. They can go smash and come
up smiling, and in a little while be worth more than ever. They know how
to do it, you see, and I don't. Smash for me means smash, and that of a
signally grievous kind."

Rainsford looked at him curiously.

"Oh, bother it, Stanninghame, you're no worse off than the rest of us.
We've got to lie low and hang on for a bit, and watch our chances."

"Possibly you are right, Rainsford. No doubt you are. Still every donkey
knows where his own saddle galls him."

"Rather, old chap," replied the other, whose hat covered the total of
his liability. "The only thing to do is to hold on tight, have a drink,
and trust in Providence. We'll go and have the drink."

They adjourned to a convenient bar. It was about noon, and the place was
fairly full. Here they found Holmes in the middle of a crowd, also
Rankin and Wheeler. The consumption of "John Walker" was proceeding at a
brisk rate.

"Hallo, Stanningham