build a hundred and fifty thousand worth, I never heard before. Perhaps the loan company charged exorbitant interest?"
"No; all we had to pay was five per cent."
"Then while you can raise seven thousand five hundred pounds for the annual interest, they are unable to close you out."
"That is so."
"Go on, Peter, this is getting beyond me. It seems to me that loan company has the heavy end of the stick."
"You will understand that the town of Gorham-on-Sea was built mostly on my land, because I had supplied the capital, and the buildings erected by that capital furnished the further money. Now, Sir Phillip Sanderson wished to do his share, so this obliging young man from London persuaded the loan company to make him an advance on his hundred thousand shares of railway stock. This railway stock, by the way, had steadily risen from nineteen and a half to twenty-six. The agent for the Southern Railway had predicted that it would, and his words came true. Sir Phillip Sanderson was once more jubilant. At last he expected to see his little railway on a paying basis, and through the kindness of the Southern agent, the loan company let Sir Phillip have the full value of his stock, namely, twenty-six thousand pounds, with the proviso, however, that if it dropped lower, he must either repay the loan, and take back his stock, or
