Litchfield enquirer., 1879-09-18
A STITCH IN TIME.
CHAPTER I.


 Not many years ago there was-as there has lately been agin--a good deal of distrust and agitation in commercial circles, chiefly. arising from some very heavy failures. One gigantic firm had fallen, and brought many others down ia it's tumble The alarm naturally felt at this spread and the rumors which alwaysat- tend, and often cause, panic, spread also, so that scarcely any undertaking however well established and solvent, entirely escaped doubt and suspicion. We do not propose to enter upon the history of any commercial panic, or even to sketch one but every reader can re-
 member, and what is worse, will see again, the deliberate and organized efforts to V''wreck', really solvent houses for the benefit of selfish and interruptions spectators: and how not only embarrassed and weak houses went down in the crash, but houses which-had time and fair play been given them-were in fair work ' ing condition. F-- ",.~ Ca. ,'-~ ---- - '.-- :
 After this preface, short. as it has been, the reader will quite understand how men who had realized by years of toil often of exile and danger, anything like a competence, felt very uneasy as to their investments, no matter how good they have hitherto proved; and MT. Caleb Burton, who had settled comfortably down in the vicinity of London, after many years labor in distant colony, felt as uneasy as the rest. He was tolerably rich man, and was considerably past his prime; yet having married late in life, he saw young family growing up around him, which became more expensive every day. A small portion of his fortune was inv vested in England; but the bulk was, and had been for some years, invested on deposit, at pretty high interest, in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Northern Australia Bank,
 which was in high repute among all the colo, nists from that part of the continent, and which did more business at it's London office than al- most any of the colonial banks. He had been induced to leave his money in the colony from the fact of his acquaintanceship with most of the Directors; while the manager at the chief establishment, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, Fred Rockman by name, had been an old ''chum" when Mir. Burton was digger, and was believed to be- and truly 30, one of the most honorable and straightforward of men. So MT. Burton felt as secure as man could feel-at first. . But while poor man may sleep soundly amid the crash of banks, dis count offices, and great mercantile firms, it is quite impossible for a rich man to do SO; and | the day soon came when the toppling over of first one great house. and then another, whose names had hitherto stood almost as types of seundness, alarmed even him, and he could | not refrain from paying daily visits to London, and haunting certain localities well known to all interested in financial transactions, and
 where-amid a thousand false reports, it must be admitted-the first whisper of coming dis aster would be sure to circulate. 5,,- .,a,, Like a good husband he had tried to conceal his uneasiness from Mrs. Burton but on her part, like a good wife, she was not to be so de- ceived and when once his preoccupied man. ner and occasionally wandering replies had attracted attention, the revelation of his anXie- ty soon followed, and she grew moreg anxious than himself With mothers anxiety, she for tho f,{ lof Co1o Amelia, with three or four other young ladies' and gentlemen whose cots she was wont to visit, and whose foreheads she was wont to kiss every night of her life. So her alarm re- acted upon her husband, and made him in- comparably more sensitive than before. -...
 All this, however, took but few days in it's growth for nothing is so swift as the changes and fears of a commercial panic and ten days had hardly passed since the fall of the afore- said great house, before Mir. Burton con- menced his visit 10 London. He was in the habit of taking his lunch at a particular tavern where foreign and colonial merchants greatly congregate, and here he saw many persons who were known to him in the days when he lived in the city. With these he ofteu spoke sometimes of the old times, but more frequent ly of the new. One day a man entered the coffee-room and looked round as though in search of some one. Mr. Burton had occasion ally seen and spoken to this man in his visits to the tavern. He was not very intimate with him, for his recollection of the man was not altogether favorable; he had been engaged in some doubtful transactions in the colony, and had moreover borrowed money of Burton un- der some spacious pretense, which turned out to be wholly false, and not one penny of this had he repaid. MT. Burton was just sitting down to lunch when he caught the eye of this individual who was somewhat shinier, not to say greasier, in his hat and clothes than the majority of the guests. and he looked round with so wistful an air that, moved by an inn pulse for which he could hardly account, Mr. Burton beckoned him to his table and invited him to join him at lunch. He was sorry for the moment he had spoken but the Captain he was called the Captain from having once owned coasting vessel-gave him no time to change his mind. He accepted the invitation with the greatest alacrity; and although his appetite was clearly of the keenest, strove to make himself agreeable by communicating all the scandal with which the very atmosphere was charged, and in which he reve!ed. This he fortified and eked out with such mysterious winks and mods that half of what he said was unintelligible to his nearer. .....
 At last the meal was finished and the Cap tain, draining the last drop from tumbler of cold brandy and water, which he had ordered as part of the lunch to which he was invited, shook his entertainer by the hand as the latter rose, and, referring for the first time to past transactions, declared he was the best-hearted and most forgiving party he knew, and that some day he would do him a good turn. Bur- ton rather abruptly thanked him, and cut short his gratitude by turning away and had nov ed pace or two through the. crowded room on his road to the door, when he heard his uame pronounced, and looking round, saw the fn
 noyed at this, he merely waved his hand, and would have continued his retreat,I but that the other beckOned him again with so earnest a look, that MT. Burton involuntarily went tow ard him. .'..'' . ,...e.-.
 ssMr. Burton, one word with you" said the Captain: he hooked his finger Tn the button hole of the others coat as he spoke Just one word" Although it was but one word he wanted to say, he seemed to have great deal of difficulty in giving utterauce to it; at last he said, dropping his voice to whisper far more mysterious than any which had preceded it: Meet me here in two hours, tinas, Mind I in earnest. T1e released his hold as he spoke, and putting his forefnger to his lip as sign of secrecy and cautio2-whch was ut terly needless, as he had communicated noth. ing-turhed away, and was lost in the throng.
 Mr. Burton smiled at the mans maudlin im- pressiveness, as he deemed it, arising, as he oApkUSCOs 4IOul llC OI utauuy Auu Wa ter, and decided on 'dismissng him and his ap- pointment from his mind. He went about for another hour meeting more of his acquain- tance, each fresh one having something more gloomy to say than the last. Affairs really seemed to be growing worse, and even those who had been hopeful before seemed to have lost heart now. So it was in a thoughtful mood he left to go to the terminus of the rail way, and on his way he glanced down the narrow passage which led to the tavern where he had lunched an hour before. The recollec- tion of the queer manner of the Captain came strongly upon him las he passed, and in his ex- cited state it came back with a weight and force which he could not help feeling strongly, while yet he thought it. ridiculous to do so, With every step he took, the influence grew stronger, until with a ''Pshaw r, of contempt at his weakness, he positively turned back, and resolved to keep the appointment, even though he was confident the Captain must have forgotten all about it, and indeed was | n0v prohahlv clnopipr ofF L;c