"I expect I have gone smash, Toby," he said. He threw him over the paper. "Read the account of what happened to-day on the Stock Exchange," he added.
"The only thing to be thankful for is that I didn't sell out just before the panic," remarked Jack.
Toby read on in silence till he had finished it.
"Because it would look as if I had known that the first telegram was false. What extraordinary nerve Alington must have! Do you see that he has been buying every share he can lay hands on?"
"I don't understand about the first telegram," said Toby.
"Supposing it is a real smash, will you have lost much, Jack?"
"Eight thousand pounds--more than that, indeed, unless the price goes up again before settling-day, for I've only paid for about half my shares."
Toby was silent a moment, wondering how Jack had ever had eight thousand pounds to invest of late years. The latter understood the silence, and acknowledged the justice of his difficulty.
"I made three thousand over Carmel East and West," he explained. "That with my year's salary as director, makes eight. I invested it all, and bought more."
"Did that fellow give you five thousand a year as director?" he asked.
"A committee of the Stock Exchange is going to investigate the whole affair, it appears," he said. "Won't that be rather unpleasant if they get into salaries?"
"Exceedingly. Mind you don't let Kit know, Toby, until one has more certain news."
He took a turn up and down the room in silence.
"Extremely annoying," he said, with laudable moderation; "and I can't imagine what has happened, or who is responsible for the first telegram. Alington cannot have caused it to be sent merely to make the market active, for it was certain to be contradicted."
A man came into the room with a telegram on a salver, and handed it to Jack.
Jack turned it over in his hand without opening it, unable to make the effort. Then he suddenly tore it open, and unfolded the thin pink sheet. It was from Alington.
"Can you meet me to-morrow morning at my rooms, St. James's Street?" it ran.
He scribbled an affirmative, and gave it back to the man.
"I shall have to go up to-morrow," he said to Toby; "Alington wants me to meet him in London; I shall go, of course. What a blessing one is a gentleman, and doesn't scream and sweat! Now, not a word to anyone; it may not be as bad as it looks."