312 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS 



[December, 1905. 



reply that the matter was hardly one which tlie Govern- 

 ment could undertake, and that the public body most 

 concerned, and, therefore, the proper quarter to appeal 

 to, was the London County Council. 



Interviewing the officials of the latter, and impress- 

 ing' upon them the great benefits to lx> derived from the 

 scheme, the lowering of rates by the huge income from 

 rents, and the great improvements to be introduced to 

 the city. Tush was again doomed to disappointment by 

 being informed that, on the whole, the scheme was con- 

 sidered to be of tof) speculative a nature for this body 

 to undertake. 



Nothing remained, therefore, except to endeavour to 

 further the original idea of the formation of a huge 

 companv. -An attractive prospectus would have to be 

 concocted and issued I)roadcast, then, if the capital was 

 forthcoming 't would Ik" necessary to get a Rill passed 

 through Parliament to obtain rights for the compulsory 

 sale of land to the company and the abolition of various 

 vested rights. 



A day or two afterwards Mr. .Singman was again at 

 the office craving an interview with the universal pro- 

 vider of moneys and lands. " I am getting a little 

 unea.sy," he confessed, "about our arrangements. 

 You have pictured to me an ideal site for my establish- 

 ment, yet though I have hunted London high and low 1 

 can find no such perfect place. Where does it exist ? 

 You might, at all events, name the district, if not the 

 street, in which it is." The wily Tush was a little 

 puzzled as to how to appease the curiosity of his client, 

 not wishing to ha\e to allow that the transaction was 

 certainly problematical and uncertain, and not likely in 

 any circumstances to be completed for some years to 

 come. However, by stating that it was not far from 

 the Houses of Parliament, that it was not south of the 

 Thames, and that it faced one of the main thorough- 

 fares, he succeeded in satisfying his over-inquisitive 

 friend for a bit. Just as Singman was leaving the 

 room, however, a thought struck him. " I thought 

 you said it was in the cify? " he suddenly interrogated. 

 " No," replied Tush with the greatest calmness, 

 " Westminster." 



The next caller was FitzEdmund. " With respect 

 to this plot of land, Mr. Tush, about which we have 

 been negotiating, I happened to meet a day or two ago 

 a gentleman who was dining with you that day, if you 

 remember. Well, he mentioned that you were 

 arranging to sell him a great plot of land, too. It 

 isn't the same by any chance, is it? " 



" Oh dear no; your theatre is to be in the vicinity of 

 the .Strand." 



Having thus dispo.scd of another awkward customer, 

 Tush was feeling a little more relieved, when Lord 

 Whittingbournc was announced. " My dear Mr. 

 Tush, I don't at all understand what is going on. 

 While sitting in your waiting-room just now, a gentle- 

 man came in, having just left you, and staring at me 

 said, ' Oh, so I s'pose he's going to sell yon a bit of 

 City property, /nn, eh?' 'That is so, sir,' I replied, 

 ' but I do not understand it all.' " 



" Oh, there's nothing in that," said Tush, " that 

 man cf)uldn't scrape out the dollars to outbid you." 



Then rumours spreafl around and were whispered 

 here and there in the highways and by-ways. The 

 great .American financier had gone off his head ! He 

 had been .selling plots f)f building land in the City freely 

 to all who applied to him, and had already negotiated 

 for the sale of such an amount as could not possibly 

 be disposable in all the City of I^ondon ! 



Tush at last got to hear of those rumf)urs. It wr)uld 



be absolutely necessary to make some explanation to 

 appease the anxiety of those concerned, but how could 

 it Ije done? 



.After long and careful consideration Tush came to 

 the conclusion that there was but one solution to the 

 difliculty. " Trust to truth." .Accordingly each of the 

 would-be purch.'isors h:id to be sent for o\er again, and 

 each had to 1m? carefully mollified and soothed, and to 

 be persuaded that immediate possession was of no im- 

 portance; and then the great scheme was gradually laid 

 before them, and the certainty of its success impressed 

 upon these " co-originators of the scheme, whose names 

 would be indeliblv connected whh this grand and bene- 

 ficial concern." 



.\nd soon the world at large were also t.iken into 

 confi<lence. The glowing and persuasive prospectus 

 convinced all men of the soimdness and fcisihilitv of 

 the scheme, so that before many weeks had passed, a 

 new and cokissal company had sprung into existence, 

 b.'ickod hv the wealth of the nation. 



CH.APTKR VL 



Progress. 



Three solid years had slipped by since the banquet at 

 the Savilc; and what a change was manifest ! 



Cornelius Tush who, one way and another had by 

 now recouped most of his lost fortune, stood once again 

 on W'cstminster Bridge surveving the river and its sur- 

 roundings. How different now the aspect to that 

 which had met his eye three years before ! That vast 

 expanse of water had now dwindled considerably. 

 C'ireat wooden structures rose from the water. Caissons 

 and hoardings hemmed in the rixer and limited its flow. 

 Beyond, extensive banks of brown earth supported 

 temporary lines of railway, along which crawled long 

 trains full of earth dug from .Surrey fields to fill in the 

 bed of the river. .\ narrow strip of water was left 

 along the southern hank forming a canal, crowded with 

 barges. 



Moving down from off the bridge, Cornelius ap- 

 proached a w(mkI<mi shed among the lines bearing the 

 sign " Temporary Olfices," and soon after enierged 

 with engineers, and foremen, and others, and was 

 ensconced in an inspection car to go a trip round the 

 w-orks. The engine whistled and the little train rattled 

 off along the shaky, roughly-laid line, passed .St. 

 Thomas' Hospital rwid the great Houses of I'arli.ament 

 opposite, and on it jogged towards Wandsworth. Vast 

 were the works in progress. On all sides gangs of 

 men at work digging, picking, shovelling, laying new 

 lines, tearing up old ones, fixing up great cranes, 

 making bridges and dams, demolishing old houses, 

 erecting new sheds. 



At Wandsworth was the junction where tlie devia- 

 tion began. And here were in course of erection some 

 large under-waler turbines, which, by the flow of the 

 river, were to convert its latent power into electrical 

 energy, and to supply London with that most valuable 

 commodity. Up the bed of the Wandli', that little 

 stream which but a few years before had run so placidly 

 and unostentatiously among the green meadows ;md 

 pollard willows, was now a vast v;illey of excavations. 

 Numerous steam diggers were puffing away ;it their 

 gigantic tasks. Temporary bridges were being con- 

 structed for the railway lines and various ro;ids passing 

 over it. On went the inspection train tf)wards Croy- 

 don. Here the work was stupendous. .An enormoiis 

 cutting, over 100 feet deep and of great width, was 

 being excavated. Hundreds of acres of siihinban land 



