took possession of his copy.  On returning home with his new partner, he entered on a discussion as to ways and means.  It was agreed that he should advance Rs. 5,000 for preliminaries, which he did a week later, raising the amount on a mortgage of his Calcutta house property.  Everything went swimmingly at first; Jogesh calling daily to report progress; and a month later he burst into Amarendra Babu’s parlour, with a cash-book and bundle of currency notes.  The latter learnt to his intense delight that his share of the profits amounted to Rs. 1268 12.4. which was promptly paid him.  Two or three days afterwards Jogesh again called to tell him that an opportunity of making Rs. 10,000 net had occurred owing to the pressing demand for cooly freight from a ship which was lying half-empty, and costing large sums for demurrage.  Rs. 10,000 must be forthcoming at once for advances and perhaps special railway trucks, but Amarendra Babu might calculate on receiving 100 per cent. in three weeks at the latest.  Such a chance of money-making was not to be lost.  Amarendra Babu rushed off to his broker and sold nearly all his Government paper for Rs. 10,000 in cash, which he handed to Jogesh, against a formal acknowledgment.

Seeing nothing of his partner for several days, Amarendra called to inquire how the new contract fared and was thunderstruck to find Jogesh’s house locked up.  Hastening to Campbell & Co.’s Strand offices, he saw a notice “to let” exhibited there.  This spectacle confirmed his worst fears—­he had been twice swindled outrageously.  His only hope lay in the scoundrel’s arrest; so he laid an information at the police station, and a clever detective was told off to investigate the charge.  Strange was the story which came to light.  No such firm as “Campbell & Co.” existed; Ganesh Babu and Salim Sardar were both accomplices of Jogesh, who had rented an office on the Strand for one month at Rs. 300 which was never paid.  He had also engaged twenty or thirty loafers at 4 annas (4d.) a head to personate coolies for a couple of hours.  This part of the inquiry was satisfactory enough—­for the police; not so the efforts they made to trace Jogesh and his accomplices.  From that day to this nothing has been heard of them.

Amarendra Babu never recovered from this crushing blow.  The loss of nearly Rs. 14,000 is a very serious matter for any one of moderate means; to him it was doubly grievous, for he worshipped money and valued nothing but success.  By constantly brooding on his misfortunes and folly he developed symptoms of madness and was at times so violent that his relatives were obliged to confine him in a dark room.  One afternoon he eluded their vigilance and hurried to the office of “Campbell & Co.” on the Strand.  After gazing for several minutes at the empty building, he heaved a deep sigh, ran across the road, and sprang into the River Hughli.  The undercurrent sucked his body in, and it was never recovered.  Perhaps Mother Ganges was loath to keep a carcase so tainted in her bosom, and so whirled it southwards to the ocean.