There were other miners at work sapping the foundations of Jasper’s fortune, besides this less concealed operator.  Parker, the young man who succeeded to the place of Claire, and who was afterward raised to the condition of partner, with a limited interest, was far from being satisfied with his dividend in the business.  The great bulk of Jasper’s means were used in outside speculations; and as the result of these became successively known to Parker, his thoughts began to run in a new channel.  “If I only had money to go into this,” and, “If I only had money to go into that,” were words frequently on his tongue.  He regarded himself as exceedingly shrewd; and confidently believed that, if he had capital to work with, he could soon amass an independent fortune.

“Money makes money,” was his favourite motto.

Unscrupulous as his partner, it is not surprising that Parker, ere long, felt himself perfectly authorized to use the credit of the house in private schemes of profit.  To do this safely, it was necessary to have a friend outside of the firm.  Such a friend he did not find it very hard to obtain; and as nearly the whole burden of the business fell upon his shoulders, it was not at all difficult to hide every thing from Jasper.

Confident as Parker was in his great shrewdness, his speculations outside of the business did not turn out very favourably.  His first essay was in the purchase of stocks, on which he lost, in a week, two thousand dollars.

Like the gamester who loses, he only played deeper, in the hope of recovering his losses; and as it often happens with the gamester, in similar circumstances, the deeper he played, the more he lost.

And so it went on.  Sometimes the young man had a turn of good fortune, and sometimes all the chances went against him.  But he was too far committed to recede without a discovery.  There was no standing still; and so newer and bolder operations were tried, involving larger and larger sums of money, until the responsibilities of the firm, added to the large cash drafts made without the cognizance of Jasper, were enormous.

To all such mad schemes the end must come; and the end came in this instance.  Failing to procure, by outside operations, sufficient money to meet several large notes, he was forced to divulge a part of his iniquity to Jasper, in order to save the credit of the firm.  Suspicion of a deeper fraud being thereby aroused in the mind of his partner, time, and a sifting investigation of the affairs of the house, revealed the astounding fact that Parker had abstracted in money, and given the notes of the firm for his own use, to the enormous amount of fifty thousand dollars.

A dissolution of co-partnership took place in consequence.  Parker, blasted in reputation, was dragged before a court of justice, in order to make him disgorge property alleged to be in his possession.  But nothing could be found; and he was finally discharged from custody.  The whole loss fell upon Jasper.  He had nursed a serpent in his bosom, warming it with the warmth of his own life; and the serpent had stung him.  Is it any wonder?