The first point at which the business suffered was in the loss of consignments.  Inability to make the required advances turned from the warehouse of Eldridge large lots of goods almost weekly, the profits on the sales of which would have been a handsome addition to his income.  At the end of three months, the first note of a thousand dollars held by Dalton fell due, and was paid.  This was so much more taken from his capital.  Another month brought a payment of a like amount, and at the end of six months a thousand dollars more were paid.  Thus Dalton had been able to get eleven thousand dollars out of the concern, although three years before he was not really worth a dollar; and there were still due him seven thousand dollars.

By this time, the eyes of Eldridge were beginning to open to the truth.  Suspicion being once finally awakened, he entered upon a careful examination of the business from the time of forming the copartnership.  This occupied him for some weeks before he was able to bring out a clear and comprehensive exhibit of affairs.  Then he saw that he had been the victim of a specious and cunning scoundrel, and that, so far from being worth a dollar, he had obligations falling due for over ten thousand dollars more than he had the means to pay.

A sad and disheartening result!  And what added to the pain of Eldridge was the fact, that he should have been so weak and short-sighted as to permit himself to be thus duped and cheated.

“I knew how it would be,” said Mr. Hueston, coolly, when he was told that Eldridge was in difficulties.  “Nothing else was to have been expected.”

“Why so?” inquired the person to whom the remark was made.

“Everybody knows Dalton to be a sharper.  Eldridge is not his first victim.”

“I did not know it.”

“I did, then, and prophesied just this result.”

“You?”

“Yes, certainly I did.  I knew exactly how it must turn out.  And here’s the end, as I predicted.”

This was said with great self-complacency.

Soon after the conversation, a young man, named Williams, who had only a year before married the daughter of Mr. Hueston, came into his store with a look of trouble on his countenance.  His business was that of an exchange-broker, and in conducting it he was using the credit of his father-in-law quite liberally.

“What’s the matter?” inquired Mr. Hueston, seeing, by the expression of the young man’s face, that something was wrong.

“Have you heard any thing about Eldridge?” inquired Williams, in an anxious voice.

“Yes, I understand that he is about making a failure of it; and, if so, it will be a bad one.  But what has that to do with your affairs?”

“If he fails, I am ruined,” replied the young man, becoming greatly excited.

“You?” It was now Mr. Hueston’s turn to exhibit a disturbed aspect.

“I hold seven thousand dollars of his paper.”