what he was driving at. He went on, after looking through
the list of mortgages we held, 'Of course, Cumming, it is to your
interest to hold on here as long as possible, and I may have mine for
wishing the bank to keep its doors open for some little time yet. It
would never do for you to be going into the market to try and transfer
any of these mortgages, but I have clients in London who would, I think,
take some of them over. Of course, I have taken good care that in no
cases did the bank lend more than fifty per cent. of the full value of
the lands, and the mortgages are all as safe as if they were on consols.
So if you will give me a fortnight's notice when there is anything
pressing coming forward, I think I can manage to get twenty thousand
pounds' worth of these mortgages taken off our hands altogether. I might
repeat the operation three or four times, and could get it done quietly
and with no fuss. In that way the bank could be kept going for a good
many months, which would give time for things to take a turn. In case of
anything like a run taking place, which I think is unlikely, I could let
you have fifteen thousand of my own in a few hours. I have it standing
at call and could run up to town and bring it down by the next train.'

"Why he should make such an offer as this puzzled me, but his reason for
wanting to prop the bank up was no business of mine, and there was no
doubt if he could get fifty or sixty thousand pounds' worth of mortgages
taken off our hands, it would enable us to hold on for some time. He
did, in fact, get one batch of twenty thousand pounds' worth
transferred, but about a month before we stopped he came in one morning
and said, 'I am sorry to tell you, Cumming, that I have heard from the
people in town I had relied on to help us about those mortgages, and
they tell me they have undertaken the financing of a contractor for a
South American railway, and that, therefore, they are not inclined at
present to sink money farther in mortgages, so I am afraid, as far as I
am concerned, things here must take their course,' and, as you know,
they did take their course. Naturally, I did not believe Brander's
story, but it was evident he had, when he made the offer, some reason
for wanting the bank to keep its doors open for a time, and that that
reason, whatever it was, had ceased to operate when he withdrew the
offer."

"I don't see that that part of the business has any bearing upon my
affair," Cu