and an annuity for a loan of $35,000 more. So small a sum as $105,000 sufficed to keep afloat the big ship laden with all their treasures. There was a period of great depression in Britain when Boulton and Watt were thus in deep water, and at such times credit is sensitive in the extreme. A small balance on the right side performs wonders. This recalls to the writer how, once in the history of his own firm, credit was kept high during a panic by using the identical sum Boulton raised, $70,000, from a reserve fund that had been laid away and came in very opportunely at the critical time. Every single dollar weighs a hundredfold when credit trembles in the balance. A leading nerve specialist in New York once said that the worst malady he had to treat was the man of affairs whose credit was suspected. His unfailing remedy was: "Call your creditors together, explain all and ask their support. I can then do you some good, but not till then." His patients who did this found themselves restored to vigor. They were supported by creditors and all was bright once more. The wise doctor was sound in his advice. If the firm has neither speculated nor gambled (synonymous terms), nor lived extravagantly, nor endorsed for others, and the business is on a solid foundation, no people have so much at stake in sustaining it as the creditors; they will rally round it and think more of the firm than ever, because they will see behind their money the best of all securities--men at the helm who are not afraid and know how to meet a storm. Boulton's timid partners no doubt were amazed that he was so blind to the dangers which they with clearer vision saw so clearly. How deluded they were. We may be sure neither of them saw the danger half as vividly as he, but it is not the part of a leader to reveal to his fellows all that he sees or fears. His part is to look dangers steadily in the face and challenge them. It is the great leader who inspires in his followers contempt for the danger which he sees in much truer proportion than they. This Boulton did, for behind all else in his character there lay the indomitable will, the do or die resolve. He had staked his life upon the hazard of a die and he would stand the cost. "But if we fail," often said the timid pair to him, as Macbeth did to his resolute partner, and the same answer came, "_We_ fail." That's all. "One knockdown will not finish this fight. We'll get up again, never fear. We know no such word as fail."[1]