reliminary steps of his plan, with the wild and reckless energy of
a maniac. The more he thought of the meshes which Gorman had cast
around him, the more did he regard escape impossible. He therefore
sought relief in action. He not only talked to his neighbours (as per
agreement) about his rapidly increasing business, but he made purchases
on a scale more extensive than he had ever before contemplated, even in
his dreams. Being convinced that ruin, sooner or later, was his doom,
he indulged in the most extravagant excesses, with much of the feeling
which prompts some seamen, when the ship is sinking, to break into the
spirit room and spend the short remnant of life in jollity. He
experienced a sort of savage delight in ordering right and left from
wholesale dealers in town and country, and even went so far as to write
to Germany for toys, using the name of a well-known London house which
had hitherto (and justly) believed him to be an honest man. The result
of this was that Poorthing Lane was besieged for some time by railway
vans, and waggons so huge that apparently an inch more added to their
bulk would have rendered their passage impossible. Great deal boxes
were constantly being unpacked in front of Mr Boone's door, much to the
annoyance of Miss Tippet, who could not imagine how it happened that her
sedate and slow-going landlord had got such a sudden increase of
business. Little did she think, poor lady, that this was the fuel with
which it was intended to roast her alive!

Some of the smaller accounts for goods thus purchased Boone paid at once
with the money furnished to him by Gorman, and thus got credit for being
a capitalist. Others he deferred payment of until a more convenient
season.

His friend Gorman, who would not have bent the joint of his little
finger to have saved him from destruction, was so anxious to get up a
good appearance, for the sake of getting the insurance effected
advantageously, that he did his best to carry out his part of the plan,
and, being a man of energy who in the paths of virtue might have risen
to a high position among men, he succeeded beyond his expectation.
Crowds of purchasers were sent by him to the shop of "the celebrated
toy-man." Some were mere decoy-ducks, who came and went (for a
consideration) pretty frequently, and only "priced" the goods. Others
were genuine purchasers, and between the two they created so much
traffic in the toy-shop, that the multitude--