He made
use of his large connections to purchase shares, which he took care to
part with speedily. He cleared a good deal of money, and that made him
hungrier: he went deeper and deeper into what he called Flat-catching,
till one day he stood to win thirty thousand pounds at a _coup._
But it is dangerous to be a convert, real or false, to Bubble: the game
is to be rash at once, and turn prudent at the full tide. When Richard
Hardie was up to his chin in these time bargains, came an incident not
easy to foresee: the conductors of the _Times,_ either from patriotism or
long-sighted policy, punctured the bladder, though they were making
thousands weekly by the railway advertisements. The time was so well
chosen, and the pin applied, that it was a death-blow: shares declined
from that morning, and the inevitable panic was advanced a week or two.
The more credulous speculators held on in hopes of a revival; but Hardie,
who knew that the collapse had been merely hastened, saw the gravity of
the situation, and sold largely at a heavy loss. But he could not sell
all the bad paper he had accumulated for a temporary purpose: the panic
came too swiftly and too strong; soon there were no buyers at any price.
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