the books had been
deliberately falsified for some time, yet trade had been so brisk of
late that, with a little help, the firm could continue to exist.
Dimsdale threw all his money and his energy into the matter, and took
Gilray into partnership, which proved to be an excellent thing for both
of them. The firm of Dimsdale and Gilray is now among the most
successful and popular of all the English firms connected with the
African trade. Of their captains there is none upon whom they place
greater reliance than upon McPherson, whose boat was providentially
saved from the danger which destroyed his former captain and his
employer.

What became of Ezra Girdlestone was never known. Some years after Tom
heard from a commercial traveller of a melancholy, broken man who
haunted the low betting-houses of San Francisco, and who met his death
eventually in some drunken fracas. There was much about this
desperado which tallied with the description of young Girdlestone, but
nothing certain was ever known about the matter.

And now I must bid adieu to the shadowy company with whom I have walked
so long. I see them going on down the vista of the future, gathering
wisdom and happiness as they go. There is the major, as stubby-toed and
pigeon-breasted as ever, broken from many of his Bohemian ways, but
still full of anecdote and of kindliness. There is his henchman, Von
Baumser, too, who is a constant diner at his hospitable board, and who
conveys so many sweets to a young Clutterbuck who has made his
appearance, that one might suspect him of receiving a commission from
the family doctor. Mrs. Clutterbuck, as buxom and pleasant as ever,
makes noble efforts at stopping these contraband supplies, but the wily
Teuton still manages to smuggle them through in the face of every
obstacle. I see Kate and her husband, chastened by their many troubles,
and making the road to the grave pleasant to the good old couple who are
so proud of their son. All these I watch as they pass away into the dim
coming time, and I know as I shut the book that, whatever may be in
store for us there, they, at least, can never in the eternal justice of
things come to aught but good.

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Firm of Girdlestone, by Arthur Conan Doyle

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIRM OF GIRDLESTONE ***

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