The public had shied at the proposition at first. Then those who had been lured by golden promises commenced to draw ten, fifteen, even twenty-five, per cent a month on their investments. On one occasion a “dividend” of seventy per cent was declared. The first investors had their money back and still were credited with the original investment. The news was received with incredulity, but as more and greater dividends were declared hundreds and then thousands had flocked to invest. Branch offices of the company, lavishly furnished and equipped with telegraph and telephone communications with all tracks, were established in a score of cities. Money poured into the Long Investment Company by tens of thousands, then almost by millions. Each month the “investors” received astonishing dividends. Some perhaps knew or suspected that the dividends were being paid out of the fresh capital, but, being gamblers, they threw their money into the gamble, betting that they would draw out their principal and more before the bubble burst. In New York, Kirtin waited, watching the expansion of the bubble and timing almost to the hour when the crash must come. In his safe nearly fifty per cent of the money received, changed into bills of large denominations, was packed in cases, and in his desk were reservations of staterooms on every vessel departing for Europe in the next fortnight. The bubble had endured longer than he expected. There was more than a million dollars packed in the cases, and more than that amount already had been transferred and deposited in various European banks. He hesitated, undecided as to whether to risk another week of delay--and decided that the time had come to reap the last harvest and permit the gleanings to remain.