then he, Peter Halket, would have sixty thousand pounds! And then he would
start another company, and another.

Peter Halket struck his knee softly with his hand.

That was the great thing--"Always sell out at the right time." That point
Peter Halket was very clear on. He had heard it so often discussed. Give
some shares to men with big names, and sell out: they can sell out too at
the right time.

Peter Halket stroked his knee thoughtfully.

And then the other people, that bought the shares for cash! Well, they
could sell out too; they could all sell out!

Then Peter Halket's mind got a little hazy. The matter was getting too
difficult for him, like a rule of three sum at school when he could not see
the relation between the two first terms and the third. Well, if they
didn't like to sell out at the right time, it was their own faults. Why
didn't they? He, Peter Halket, did not feel responsible for them.
Everyone knew that you had to sell out at the right time. If they didn't
choose to sell out at the right time, well, they didn't. "It's the shares
that you sell, not the shares you keep, that make the money."

But if they couldn't sell them?

Here Peter Halket hesitated.--Well, the British Government would have to
buy them, if they were so bad no one else would; and then no one would
lose. "The British Government can't let British share-holders suffer."
He'd heard that often enough. The British taxpayer would have to pay for