perhaps the fruitless, task of opposing
his apparently triumphant adversary.

In the depth of his misfortune one true, reliable friend remained to
him, and saved him from utter despair. This friend was the
multiplication-table. Before he began to calculate he put these
questions to himself, as if he were some one else:

"Is this colony a company of commercial men? No, a company of
speculators. A joint-stock company? No, it is a game of chance. Is it
a factory? No, a tower of Babel." Then he went on to consider this
point. "Two and two make four, and, turn it how you like, it makes
nothing _but_ four; and if all the kings and emperors in Europe, with
decrees and ukases, were to tell their individual subjects that two
and two make five, and if the pope fulminated a bull to enjoin on all
true believers that two and two make five, and if even the best
financial authority was to declare that we should count two and two as
five, all these--kings, emperors, popes, and accountants--would not
alter the fact that two and two make four. These generous shareholders
of the Bondavara Company are working against a well-known fact. The
new company builds, creates, invents, contracts, buys, and sells
without taking any heed of the primary rule of arithmetic; therefore
it is clear that the company is not working for the future, but merely
for present gain. Therefore, I will live down this swindle."

* * * * *

At the end of the year the company gave their shareholders a surprise.
The Bondavara shares began to fluctuate between thirty-five and forty
florins exchange, although the date of the payment of second
instalments of capital was at hand. At such times all the early bonds
are handed in. Csanta thought this would be a good time for him to
bring in his shares and to get his silver back. He was contemplating a
visit to the bank when he received a private note from Spitzhase,
putting him on his guard not to fall into such a mistake as to sell.
"This very day the board of directors had met, and a resolution had
been carried unanimously that at the next general meeting the
shareholders should be surprised by getting a bonus of twenty per
cent., upon which the shares would at once rise higher. This was a
profound secret, but he could not allow his good friend to remain in
ignorance."

And at the next general meeting the commercial world heard the same
story. The first two months of the Bondavara Coal Co