four or five years in the country, but that the
old rage for speculation had come upon him so
strongly that he had returned again to London;
some friends had lent him a few hundred pounds
on which to recommence, and though his life had
at first been but a hand to mouth existence, he
had been happier in London than in the country.
Latterly, he had been doing very well indeed,
and now that the mania for joint-stock
companies of all kinds had set in, he hoped to make
a good thing of it. " I leave the directorships
alone, now-a-days," he said; " my business is to
'promote' companies. Here, now, is a capital
thing, safe to come out at from one and a half
to two premium;" saying which he unfolded the
prospectus of "The Deep Sea Copper Mining
Company (Limited), capital £500,000, in 100,000
shares of £5 each, of which £1 will be paid on
application, £1 on allotment, and £1 not sooner
than twelve months after allotment." " If you
can get me two good directors for this company,"
said Skeeme, " I am quite willing to allow you
three hundred pounds of my share of the
promotion money."

It was evident that Skeeme, having money
of his own to speculate with, had taken to
the profession of a promoter with all the
forethought and carefulness which his previous
misfortunes had taught him. I did not much
admire his " Deep Sea Copper Mining
Company," although, to do him justice, he brought it
out, at three pounds premium, and a hundred
shares which he had managed to get allotted to
me I sold at that very respectable figure.

But a better and far more profitable project was
put into shape by my old friend. Having felt
severely the want of capital himself, he often
considered whether a sort of unlimited credit upon
bills, or other documents, could not be set on
foot; and one day, by inspiration as it were, he
solved the problem. His idea— not altogether
new, for it had been worked to some extent
on the Continent— was to establish a joint-
stock company (" limited," of course), with,
nominally, an immense capital, very little of
which was to be paid up, but the operations
of the concern were to be carried on altogether
upon acceptances, or bills of the company.
If it succeeded, the profits upon the paid-up
capital would be immense. For instance,
let us suppose that a certain railway wanted
money— say a trifle of five hundred thousand
pounds or so. To borrow such a sum at any bank
would be an impossibility. In the first place,
the line was only half constructed, and never
could be finished unless the loan were obtained.
Security, beyond the works already completed,
it had none to offer; all its capilal, to say
nothing of the money obtained from debentures,
having long ago been used up. Well; the
railway directors would get the contractor to
draw upon them for six hundred thousand or
seven hundred thousand pounds in bills, which
the said board would accept. These the contractor
would deposit with the new-fashioned finance
company, and upon that security— if such a
name can be given it— he would obtain the
money he required to finish the works. This
would not be given in cash. The contractor
would have to draw another set of bills upon
the board of directors of the finance company,
these would be accepted, and then taken
elsewhere to discount. For this transaction the
finance company would, perhaps, charge as
high as ten per cent— for merely giving its
acceptance to the railway contractor— and ten
per cent upon mere paper very soon makes the
interest of the capital something exceedingly
respectable. My friend Skeeme was quite full of
this new plan. " Others charge interest for
money," said he, " but we shall charge interest
upon paper; being all the time as secure as if
we had the guarantee of the Bank of England."

For a long time the plan seemed to work
wonderfully well. I should have mentioned
that Skeeme's company, " The General and
Universal Confidence Company, Limited," took
immensely in the City. The idea was thought so
good, and there was something so new in it,
that a regular rush was made to obtain shares.
On the very first day that the concern was
advertised, it rose to four premium. I managed
to realise a nice little sum out of the fifty shares
I obtained through the influence of Skeeme. In a
very short time it was known in the City who
had first planned the Confidence Company;
and when middle-aged or old men knew that
it was the Mr. Skeeme well known in old
days, they were proud of the genius of their
old friend. The promotion money which
Skeeme obtained for bringing out the " General
and Universal Confidence Company, Limited,"
was a very handsome sum: no less than
ten thousand pounds. The reputation he
achieved in the financial world was still
greater. On every side, offers were made him
to become a director of this, vice-chairman
of that, or chairman of the other, company.
For a long time he resisted the temptation, but
it proved too strong at last. One morning, in
the money article of the Times, I read that Mr.
John Skeeme, the well-known authority on
financial matters, had consented to become
chairman of the " Universal Discount
Company" (a new affair), and that, in consequence
of this announcement, the shares of the company
had risen from two pounds fifteen shillings, to
four pounds two shillings and sixpence premium,
in a single afternoon.

THE UNLUCKY CAPTAIN.

I STOOD on Rousseau's Bridge at Geneva, at
mid-day, waiting for the steam-boat to start for
Montreux. How long I waited, I knew not,
nor, indeed, did I care. Who can tire of the
rushing past of that glorious river? There it
glides from the lake, more transparent than at
Ville Neuve, and with a far more vivid colour.
Here it flings itself, with a joyful bound, under
the bridges, and over the shining sands! A
pure life it has had (like other lives I know),
never dimmed by contact with base things, but