ning counter, while swift messengers sped
and telegrams flashed to draw in all the available resources of the
bank. All day the stream poured through the office, and when four
o'clock came, and the doors were closed for the day, the street without
was still blocked by the expectant crowd, while there remained scarce a
thousand pounds of bullion in the cellars.

"It is only postponed. Louis," said brother Rupert despairingly, when
the last clerk had left the office, and when at last they could relax
the fixed smile upon their haggard faces.

"Those shutters will never come down again," cried brother Louis, and
the two suddenly burst out sobbing in each other's arms, not for their
own griefs, but for the miseries which they might bring upon those who
had trusted them.

But who shall ever dare to say that there is no hope, if he will but
give his griefs to the world? That very night Mrs. Spurling had received
a letter from her old school friend, Mrs. Louis Garraweg, with all her
fears and her hopes poured out in it, and the whole sad story of their
troubles. Swift from the Vicarage went the message to the Hall, and
early next morning Mr. Raffles Haw, with a great black carpet-bag in his
hand, found means to draw the cashier of the local branch of the Bank
of England from his breakfast, and to persuade him to open his doors
at unofficial hours. By half-past nine the crowd had already begun
to collect around Garraweg's, when a stranger, pale and thin, with a
bloated carpet-bag, was shown at his own very pressing request into the
bank parlour.

"It is no use, sir," said the elder brother humbly, as they stood
together encouraging each other to turn a brave face to misfortune,
"we can do no more. We have little left, and it would be unfair to the
others to pay you now. We can but hope that when our assets are realised
no one will be the loser save ourselves."

"I did not come to draw out, but to put in," said Raffles Haw in his
demure apologetic fashion. "I have in my bag five thousand hundred-pound
Bank of England notes. If you will have the goodness to place them to my
credit account I should be extremely obliged."

"But, good heavens, sir!" stammered Rupert Garraweg, "have you
not heard? Have you not seen? We cannot allow you to do this thing
blindfold; can we Louis?"

"Most certainly not. We cannot recommend our bank, sir, at the present
moment, for there is a run upon us, and we do not know to what lengths
it may