Detective and mystery stories; English fiction -- 20th century
Most artistic of all was the passing of Lucas Damant, the Company
Promoter. Damant's defalcations were the heaviest, for his
opportunities were greater. He dealt in millions and stole in
millions. Taking his holiday in Switzerland, Mr. Damant foolishly
essayed the ascent of the Matterhorn without a guide. His alpenstock
was picked up at the edge of a deep _crevasse_, and another Alpine
disaster was added to the alarming list of mountaineering tragedies.
What time four expert guides were endeavouring to extricate the lost
man from a bottomless pit, sixteen chartered accountants were engaged
in extracting from the chaos of his documentary remains the true
position of Mr. Damant's affairs, but the sixteen accountants, had
they been sixteen hundred, an the space of time occupied in their
investigation, in a thousand years, would never have been able to
balance the Company Promoter's estate to the satisfaction of all
concerned, for between debit and credit yawned an unfathomable chasm
that close on a million pounds could not have spanned.
In the course of time a fickle public forgot the sensational
disappearance of these men; in course of time their victims died or
sought admission to the workhouse. There were spasmodic discussions
that arose in smoke-rooms and tap-rooms, and the question, as to
whether they were dead or whether they had merely bolted, was hotly
debated, but it may be truthfully said that they were forgotten; but
not by Scotland Yard, which neither forgets nor forgives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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