I must do what I can to carry the bill through Parliament;
and, as you have now sold your whole shares, I advise you to resign from
the direction, go down straight to Glenmutchkin, and qualify yourself
for a witness. We shall give you five guineas a day, and pay all your
expenses."
"Not a bad notion. But what has become of M'Closkie, and the other
fellow with the jaw-breaking name?"
"Vich-Induibh? I have looked after their interests as in duty bound,
sold their shares at a large premium, and despatched them to their
native hills on annuities."
"And Sir Polloxfen?"
"Died yesterday of spontaneous combustion."
As the company seemed breaking up, I thought I could not do better than
take M'Corkindale's hint, and accordingly betook myself to Glenmutchkin,
along with the Captain of M'Alcohol, and we quartered ourselves upon
the Factor for Glentumblers. We found Watty Solder very shaky, and his
assistant also lapsing into habits of painful inebriety. We saw little
of them except of an evening, for we shot and fished the whole day, and
made ourselves remarkably comfortable. By singular good luck, the plans
and sections were lodged in time, and the Board of Trade very handsomely
reported in our favour, with a recommendation of what they were pleased
to call "the Glenmutchkin system," and a hope that it might generally be
carried out.
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