They came and ate and cried, “God speed!” The Bill was very large indeed, And paid for by an Anglo-Saxon Who bore the sterling name of Jackson. On this occasion Sin was seen Toasting McKinley and the Queen. The speech was dull, but not an eye, Not even the champagne was dry. [Illustration ** Sin orating to a group around a drinking table.][1] [1] Observe the face of William Jackson, How typical an Anglo-Saxon! III. [Illustration ** Blood and another man at a dining table, discussing a prospectus.] Now William Blood, or, as I still Affectionately call him, Bill, Was of a different stamp; One who, in other ages born Had turned to strengthen and adorn The Senate or the Camp. But Fortune, jealous and austere, Had marked him for a great career Of more congenial kind-- A sort of modern Buccaneer, Commercial and refined. Like all great men, his chief affairs Were buying stocks and selling shares. He occupied his mind In buying them by day from men Who needed ready cash, and then At evening selling them again To those with whom he dined. But such a task could never fill His masterful ambition That rapid glance, that iron will, Disdained (and rightfully) to make A profit here and there, or take His two per cent. commission. His soul with nobler stuff was fraught; The love of country, as it ought, Haunted his every act and thought. To that he lent his mighty powers, To that he gave his waking hours, Of that he dreamed in troubled sleep, Till, after many years, the deep Imperial emotion, That moves us like a martial strain, Turned his Napoleonic brain To company promotion. [Illustration ** Blood in a checkered suit waving a walking stick at our traveller who is relaxing and smoking in a chair.] He failed, and it was better so: It made our expedition. One day (it was a year ago) He came on foot across the town, And said his luck was rather down, And would I lend him half-a-crown? I did, but on condition (Drawn up in proper legal shape, Witnessed and sealed, and tied with tape, And costing two pound two), That, “If within the current year He made a hundred thousand clear,” He should accompany me in A Project I had formed with Sin To go to Timbuctoo. Later, we had a tiff because I introduced another clause, Of which the general sense is, That Blood, in the unlikely case Of this adventure taking place, Should pay the whole expenses. Blood swore that he had never read Or seen the clause. But Blood is dead.