Then home, to toy with the food set before him,
his mind already running on the discomforts of the afternoon.--Two bits
of ill-luck came his way this summer. Old Ocock fell, in dismounting
from a vehicle, and sustained a compound fracture of the femur. Owing to
his advanced age there was for a time fear of malunion of the parts, and
this kept Mahony on the rack. Secondly, a near neighbour, a common
little fellow who kept a jeweller's shop in Bridge Street, actually took
the plunge: sold off one fine day and sailed for home. And this seemed
the unkindest cut of all.
But the accident that gave the death-blow to his scruples was another.
On the advice of a wealthy publican he was treating, whose judgment he
trusted, Mahony had invested--heavily for him, selling off other stock
to do it--in a company known as the Hodderburn Estate. This was a
government affair and ought to have been beyond reproach. One day,
however, it was found that the official reports of the work done by the
diamond drill-bore were cooked documents; and instantly every one
connected with the mine--directors, managers, engineers--lay under the
suspicion of fraudulent dealings. Shares had risen as high as ten pounds
odd; but when the drive reached the bore and, in place of the deep
gutter-ground the public had been led to expect, hard rock was found
overhead, there was a panic; shares dropped to twenty-five shillings and
did not rally. Mahony was a loser by six hundred pounds, and got,
besides, a moral shaking from which he could not recover.
Pages:
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544