,--suicide in all its darkest forms ever present to his aching
faculties, while all this time one glance within that little book would
save him. And he wound up all by a burst of enthusiastic praise of a man
who could thus transmit happiness to generations unborn.

"I never wish to sell dat book. I mean it alway to die wit myself! but
if you will give me one tousand pounds, it is yours. If you delay, I
will say two tousands."

"Done--I take it. Of course a bill will do--eh?"

"Yaas, I will take a bill,--a bill at tree months. When it is yours, I
will tell you dat you are de luckiest man in all Europe. You have dere,
in dat leetle volume, all man strive for, fight for, cheat for, die
for!"

As he said this, he sat down again at his desk to write the acceptance
Beecher was to sign; while the other, withdrawing into the window
recess, peered eagerly into the pages of the precious book.

"Mind," said the Jew, "you no let any one see de 'Cabal.' If it be once
get abroad, de bank will change de play. You just carry in your head
de combinations, and you, go in, and win de millions dat you want at de
time."

"Just so," said Beecher, in ecstasy, the very thought of the golden
cataract sending a thrill of rapture through him. "I suppose, however, I
may show it to Davis?"

"Ach, der Davis, yaas,--der Davis can see it," said the Jew, with a
laugh whose significance it were very hard to interpret. "Dere now,"
said Stein, handing him the pen, "write de name dere as on de oder."

"Still Lackington, I suppose--eh?" asked Beecher.

"Yaas,--just de same," said Stein, gravely.

"'Just as good for a sheep as a lamb,' as the proverb says," muttered
Beecher. And he dashed off the name with a reckless flourish. "I 'll
tell you one thing, Master Stein," said he, as he buttoned up the magic
volume in the breast of his coat, "if this turn out the good dodge
you say it is, I 'll behave handsomely to you. I pledge you my word of
honor, I'll stand to you for double--treble the sum you have got written
there. _You_ don't know the fellow you're dealing with,--very few know
him, for the matter of that,--but though he has got a smart lesson
or two in life, he has good stuff in him still; and _if_--I say _if_,
because, of course, all depends on _that_--_if_ I can give the bank
at Hamburg a spring in the air with the aid of this, I 'll not forget
_you_, old boy."

"You make dem all spring in de air!--Ems, Wiesbaden, Baden--all go up
togeder