Skinner too reflected on this strange freak of Fortune:
and the result was that he burst in on his principal's reverie with a
joyful shout: "The bank is saved! Hardie's is good for another hundred
years.
The banker started, for Skinner's voice sounded like a pistol-shot in his
ear, so high strung was he with thought.
"Hush! hush!" he said, and pondered again in silence. At last he turned
to Skinner. "You think our course is plain? I tell you it is so dark and
complicated it would puzzle Solomon to know what is best to be done."
"Save the bank, sir, whatever you do."
"How can I save the bank with a few thousand pounds, which I must refund
when called on? You look keenly into what is under your eye, Skinner, but
you cannot see a yard beyond your nose. Let me think."
After a while he took a sheet of paper, and jotted down "the materials,"
as he called them, and read them out to his accomplice:--
"1. A bank too far gone to be redeemed. If I throw this money into it, I
shall ruin Captain Dodd, and do myself no good, but only my creditors.
"2. Miss Julia Dodd, virtual proprietor of this L.
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