At last it all came to an end. One day towards the latter part of August, Mr. Mortomley returned home earlier than usual; complaining of headache, he went to bed before dinner. Ere morning Dolly tapped at Rupert's door, and begged him despatch some one for a doctor. "It has come," thought Rupert dressing in all haste, "I knew it could not last for ever." That day, Mr. Forde waited in vain for his victim. It had become a necessity of his existence to vent the irritation caused by the anxiety of his position on some one, and Mortomley proved the best whipping boy who ever accepted vicarious chastisement. When, therefore, afternoon arrived and no Mr. Mortomley, he was obliged to expend his wrath on some persons who did not accept the gift with much patience. Amongst others Henry Werner, who, after listening to one of Mr. Forde's diatribes with apparently unmoved composure, walked up to the manager and thrusting his clenched fist in that irate individual's face, inquired, "Do you see that?" "Yes, I see it, sir," sputtered out Mr. Forde; "I see it sir, and what if I do, sir?" "You had better not try to come any of that sort of infernal nonsense with me," remarked Mr. Werner. "When two men are sailing in the same boat, if one can't keep a civil tongue in his head he must go overboard. Do you understand; if you try this game on again, you shall go by----." Mr. Forde looked round the office with a scared expression. "I--I--meant nothing," he said. "I know that," replied Mr. Werner; "and see you never mean the same thing again in the future, for I won't bear it; remember, I won't bear it. If ever a day comes when I cannot see my way, I shall know how to face the evil, but I will never endure being bullied by you!" and with that explicit utterance Mr. Werner walked out of the spic-and-span new office and into Vedast Lane, stumbling by the way over Mr. Kleinwort. "How is he to-day," demanded the latter gentleman, speaking his native language. "In one of his tantrums," was the reply. "If you want anything you had better not ask for it at present." Kleinwort laughed. "When he show the cloven foot," he remarked in English, "I know who get the worst of the kicking." "And so do I," thought Werner. "Would to Heaven I were clear of the whole connection." Which was all the more ungrateful of Mr. Werner, since he had once regarded the General Chemical Company in the light of a stepping-stone to fortune. But that was in the days when he had made a little mistake about Forde, and considered him a clever man. Now there can he no greater mistake for an adventurer to fall into than this, and Mr. Werner cursed his fate accordingly. All this time Mortomley was lying in a state of blessed unconsciousness.