It was shortly after this boom that the gravel surrounding the rich patch became very gravelly indeed, and it was determined that we should buy a small battery and begin to crush the quartz from which the gold was supposed to flow in a Pactolian stream.  We negotiated for that battery through a Cape Town firm of engineers—­but why follow the melancholy business in all its details?  The shares began to decrease in value.  They shrank to their original price of L1, then to 15s., then to 10s.  Jacob, he was managing director, explained to me that it was necessary to “support the market,” as he was already doing to an enormous extent, and that I as chairman ought to take a “lead in this good work” in order to show my faith in the concern.

I took a lead to the extent of another L500, which was all that I could afford.  I admit that it was a shock to such trust in human nature as remained to me when I discovered subsequently that the 1,000 shares which I bought for my L500 had really been the property of Jacob, although they appeared to be sold to me in various other names.

The crisis came at last, for before that battery was delivered our available funds were exhausted, and no one would subscribe another halfpenny.  Debentures, it is true, had been issued and taken up to the extent of about L1,000 out of the L5,000 offered, though who bought them remained at the time a mystery to me.  Ultimately a meeting was called to consider the question of liquidating the company, and at this meeting, after three sleepless nights, I occupied the chair.

When I entered the room, to my amazement I found that of the five directors only one was present besides myself, an honest old retired sea captain who had bought and paid for 300 shares.  Jacob and the two friends who represented his interests had, it appeared, taken ship that morning for Cape Town, whither they were summoned to attend various relatives who had been seized with illness.

It was a stormy meeting at first.  I explained the position to the best of my ability, and when I had finished was assailed with a number of questions which I could not answer to the satisfaction of myself or of anybody else.  Then a gentleman, the owner of ten shares, who had evidently been drinking, suggested in plain language that I had cheated the shareholders by issuing false reports.

I jumped up in a fury and, although he was twice my size, asked him to come and argue the question outside, whereon he promptly went away.  This incident excited a laugh, and then the whole truth came out.  A man with coloured blood in him stood up and told a story which was subsequently proved to be true.  Jacob had employed him to “salt” the mine by mixing a heavy sprinkling of gold in the gravel we had first washed (which the coloured man swore he did in innocence), and subsequently had defrauded him of his wages.  That was all.  I sank back in my chair overcome.  Then some good fellow in the audience, who had lost money himself in the affair and whom I scarcely knew, got up and made a noble speech which went far to restore my belief in human nature.