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310 "How long do they give you to settle?"

"Until to-morrow."

"Well, you have waited till the last moment, Peter."

"I believe we are allowed three days of grace, but next week they can close down on us."

"Very well, they will sell your stock, and the railway company can buy it for five thousand pounds, or two thousand, or one thousand. There will be nobody to bid against them; the only possible bidder being that old fool Sanderson. I won't for the moment mention any younger incompetent. But the Great Southern Company will acquire your railway for a song in spite of all you can do. Then the loan company will come upon Sanderson for the difference. He has had from them twenty-six thousand pounds. Say the Great Southern pays five thousand, which they won't do, by the way, or anything like it, then the loan company comes on Sanderson to make up twenty-one thousand. He can't do it, so they put his property on the market, his pawned town—why the Great Southern Railway has got everything. Within a week they'll be in possession of all you and Sanderson own: new brick town, railway line, and estate. The panic in America and the stringency of the money market here leave you helpless."

"My dear Lord Stranleigh, we are not helpless if we can find anyone to loan us twenty-six