The event proved the wisdom of Mrs. Gwynne's determination to put little
faith in the optimistic confidence of her husband in regard to the
profits to be expected from the operations of the National Machine
Company. A year's business was sufficient to demonstrate that the
Mapleton branch of the National Machine Company was bankrupt. By
every law of life it ought to be bankrupt. With all his many excellent
qualities Mr. Gwynne possessed certain fatal defects as a business man.
With him the supreme consideration was simply the getting rid of the
machines purchased by him as rapidly and in such large numbers as
possible. He cheerfully ignored the laws that governed the elemental
item of profit. Hence the relentless Nemesis that sooner or later
overtakes those who, whether ignorantly or maliciously, break laws, fell
upon the National Machine Company and upon those who had the misfortune
to be associated with it.

In the wreck of the business Mr. Gwynne's store, upon which the National
Machine Company had taken the precaution to secure a mortgage, was also
involved. The business went into the hands of a receiver and was bought
up at about fifty cents on the dollar by a man recently from western
Canada whose specialty was the handling of business wreckage. No
one after even a cursory glance at his face would suspect Mr. H. P.
Sleighter of deficiency in business qualities. The snap in the cold
grey eye, the firm lines in the long jaw, the thin lips pressed hard
together, all proclaimed the hard-headed, cold-hearted, iron-willed
man of business. Mr. Sleighter, moreover, had a remarkable instinct for
values, more especially for salvage values. It was this instinct that
led him to the purchase of the National Machine Company wreckage, which
included as well the Mapleton general store, with its assets in stock
and book debts.