"I believed Eldridge to be perfectly good. Dalton said that he was
in the way of making a fortune."

"Why, then, was he anxious to part with his paper without recourse?"

"It was, he alleged, on account of ill-health. He wished to close up
all his business and make an investment of what little he possessed
previous to going south, in the hope that a change of air would
brace up his shattered constitution."

"It was all a lie--the scoundrel! His health is as good as mine. A
greater villain than he is does not walk the earth. I wonder how you
could have been so duped."

"How do you think Eldridge's affairs will turn out?" asked the young
man.

"Worse than nothing, I suppose. I understand that he paid Dalton
some eighteen thousand dollars for his half of the business. There
was but ten thousand dollars capital at first; and, from the way
things were conducted, instead of its increasing, it must have
diminished yearly."

Here was an entirely new aspect in the case. Mr. Hueston's
self-complacency was gone; he knew how it would be with Eldridge
from the first, but he didn't know how it was going to be with
himself. He didn't for a moment dream that when the fabric of the
young man's fortune came falling around him, that any thing
belonging to him would be buried under the ruins.