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AUTHOR OF “THE
BLOOD THAT DRIPPED ON THE DOORMAT,” “THE SCREAM IN
BELGRAVE SQUARE,” “THE VAMPIRE OF BODGER’S ALLEY.”
Synopsis of Previous Chapters.—The Hon.
Baldwin Berkeley, B.A., a hard-working but honourable young stockbroker, has
decided to put all his accumulated earnings into a seemingly prosperous gold
mine called The Take It or Leave It Bodegian Ore Supply Co., Ltd. He hopes
thus to make enough profit to buy back the old ancestral Hall and marry his
typist, Miss Stagg-Mantle, who conceals her right to the throne of
BodegiaFictional names of exotic foreign countries like Wodehouse’s
Bodegia have become fashionable for novelists since Anthony Hope’s Ruritania in The Prisoner of Zenda
in 1894.
in
order to escape matrimony with Count Luke von Lockhart, the Count, by the laws
of Bodegia, having the right of first refusal. Baldwin is ignorant that von
Lockhart is anything but the director of the Ore Supply Co., and laughs at his
typist’s hints that the mine is unsound.
CHAPTER XXXMMMCCCIII.
In the Temple of
Mammon.term derived from the Bible, used to describe material wealth or
greed, most often personified as a deity. Webster defines
‘mammon’ as the false god of riches and avarice.
It was the first time that Baldwin had ever been inside the Stock Exchange,
as he generally preferred to transact his business in the cooler atmosphere of
Capel Court.home of the London stock exchange.
But Luke Lockhart had named
the interior of this building for the transfer of certificates, and he
therefore entered. As soon as his ears became accustomed to the deafening
shouts of the excited crowd, he opened his eyes and sought out the suave form of
the managing director. It was no easy matter. On all sides the busy
financiers proceeded intently upon their business. Now his path was blocked by
the active leap-frog players; now, by a team of indoor cricketers captained by
Mr. Fry.
C. B. (Charles Burgess) Fry (1872–1956),
English polymath; outstanding sportsman, politician, teacher, writer, editor
and publisher. In sport, Fry was most noted for his cricketing achievements.
At Oxford, he got his Blue for cricket, athletics, and Association football
(soccer). He set a world long jump record when he was at Oxford, played as an
amateur in the professional football Cup Final, and captained England at cricket.
He was Athletics Editor at The Captain, a boys’ magazine in
which dozens of pieces of Wodehouse’s early work appeared.
His hat was bashed in three times in quick succession by
Baron Rothschild,
Baron Rothschild: Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1840–1915) was a
British banker and politician from the international Rothschild financial
dynasty.
the City Editor of TruthInfluential weekly founded by radical M.P. Henry Labouchère
in 1877.
,
and a Battersea Loan Manipulator. At last he found Luke Lockhart.
“Have you got the certificates?” asked Baldwin.
“Yes,” replied the bland director, his honeyed voice saturated with succulent subtlety. “And have you got the money?”
Just as Baldwin was about to part, a clear, girlish voice cried:
“Baldwin, the mine is
salted.In mineral exploration, salting is the process of
adding gold or silver to an ore sample to change the value of the ore with
intent to deceive, cheat or defraud.
Don’t trade in
‘Take It or Leave It.’ The ore supply is dead,” and
Miss Stagg-Mantle rushed imploringly to her lover’s side. Through the
uproarWomen were not allowed on the floor of the
Stock Exchange until 1973, hence the uproar when Marjorie appears.
which ensued,
during which one thousand eight hundred and fourteen hats were
bashed in, Luke Lockhart, with livid face screamed:
“Traitress, come back to Bodegia as my wife.”
Instantly Baldwin rolled up his
sleeves. His coat had long before been torn off his back as a practical joke.
At this point another female voice was raised above the shouts of
“Contango,”On the London stock exchange, a fee paid by a buyer
of securities to the seller for the purpose of deferring payment.
and “Hammer him.” It was that of the
Bodegian wine-shop womanWodehouse puns here on the London chain of wine
shops named Bodega specializing in sherries and ports.
Marie Spaghetti.
“The Count von Lockhart,” she hissed, raising her stiletto, “is married secretly to me.”
The Official Hammerer’s mallet was now raised, his eye was upon the fraudulent director. Suddenly the following message was clicked off on the never-ceasing tape machine.
(To be continued.)
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