restore the concern he had mismanaged to its former state. For this a
large sum of money was needed, not less than ninety thousand pounds.

The difficulties were great; but he entered on this project with two
advantages. In the first place, he enjoyed excellent credit; in the
second, he was not disposed to be scrupulous. He had been cheated several
times; and nothing undermines feeble rectitude more than that. Such a man
as Wardlaw is apt to establish a sort of account current with humanity.

"Several fellow-creatures have cheated me. Well, I must get as much back,
by hook or by crook, from several fellow-creatures."

After much hard thought he conceived his double master-stroke. And it was
to execute this he went out to Australia.

We have seen that he persuaded Helen Rolleston to come to England and be
married; but, as to the other part of his project, that is a matter for
the reader to watch, as it develops itself.

His first act of business, on reaching England, was to insure the
freights of the _Proserpine_ and the _Shannon._

He sent Michael Penfold to Lloyds', with the requisite vouchers,
including the receipts of the gold merchants. Penfold easily insured the
_Shannon,_ whose freight was valued at only six thousand pounds. The
_Proserpine,_ with her cargo, and a hundred and thirty thousand pounds of
specie to boot, was another matter. Some underwriters had an objection to
specie, being subject to theft as well as shipwreck; other underwriters,
applied to by Penfold, acquiesced; others called on Wardlaw himself, to
ask a few questions, and he replied to them courteously, but with a
certain nonchalance, treating it as an affair which might be big to them,
but was not of particular importance to a merchant doing business on his
scale.

To one underwriter, Condell, with whom he was on somewhat intimate terms,
he said, "I wish I could insure the _Shannon_ at her value; but that is
impossible. The City of London could not do it. The _Proserpine_ brings
me some cases of specie, but my true treasure is on board the _Shannon._
She carries my bride, sir."

"Oh, indeed! Miss Rolleston."

"Ah, I remember; you have seen her. Then you will not be surprised at a
proposal I shall make you. Underwrite the _Shannon_ a million pounds, to
be paid by you if harm befalls my Helen. You need not look so astonished;
I was only joking; you gentlemen deal with none but substantial values;
and, as for me, a million would no more