ng to end not a single
false step had he committed. Suspicious clients had been ear-marked:
the trusting discriminated with gratitude, and milked again and again to
meet emergency.

As a piece of organisation it was magnificent. No one but a financial
genius could have picked a dozen steps through such a network of
chicanery. For half a lifetime he had moved among it, dignified,
respected and secure.

Whether even he could have maintained his position for another month was
doubtful. Suicide, though hinted at, was proved to have been impossible.
It seemed as though with his amazing audacity he had tricked even Death
into becoming his accomplice.

"But it is impossible, Kelver!" cried Gadley, "this must be some dream.
Stillwood, Waterhead and Royal! What is the meaning of it?"

He took the book into his hands again, then burst into tears. "You never
knew him," wailed the poor little man. "Stillwood, Waterhead and Royal!
I came here as office boy fifty years ago. He was more like a friend to
me than--" and again the sobs shook his little fat body.

I locked the books away and put him into his hat and coat. But I had
much difficulty in getting him out of the office.

"I daren't, young 'un," he cried, drawing back. "Fifty years I have
walked out of this office, proud of it, proud of being connected with
it. I daren't face the street!"

All the way home his only idea was: Could it not be hidden? Honest,
kindly little man that he was, he seemed to have no thought for the
unfortunate victims. The good name of his master, of his friend, gone!
Stillwood, Waterhead and Royal, a by-word! To have avoided that I
believe he would have been willing for yet another hundred clients to be
ruined.

I saw him to his door, then turned homeward; and to my surprise in
a dark by-street heard myself laughing heartily. I checked myself
instantly, feeling ashamed of my callousness, of my seeming indifference
to the trouble even of myself and my mother. Yet as there passed before
me the remembrance of that imposing and expensive funeral with its
mournful following of tearful faces; the hushed reading of the will with
its accompaniment of rustling approval; the picture of the admirably
sympathetic clergyman consoling with white hands Mrs. Stillwood,
inclined to hysteria, but anxious concerning her two hundred pounds'
worth of crape which by no possibility of means could now be paid
for--recurred to me the obituary notice in "The Chelsea We