gretted so deeply. Old Buck, as chairman of the board of directors, had to take personal action, which injured him generally. Presumably it was only because of old Buck that the government was acting so harshly. It had been a mistake to elect him chairman. In any case, he should have paid his debts with the money Hessling had so decently given him, instead of buying Gausenfeld shares. Diederich himself repeatedly expressed this opinion. "Who ever would have believed it once upon a time," he remarked again in this connection; and again he thoughtfully contemplated his fate. "It is easily seen what a man is capable of when he feels the ground slipping from beneath his feet." This gave everybody the unpleasant impression that old Buck would drag them down, as shareholders, in his own ruin. For the shares were falling. As a result of the dismissals, a strike was threatened, and they fell still further. … At this juncture Kienast made a number of friends. Kienast had arrived unexpectedly in Netzig, for a rest, as he said. Nobody liked admitting that they had Gausenfeld shares and had been taken in. Kienast told one that the other had already sold out. His personal opinion was that it was high time to do so. A broker, whom he did not know, by the way, came into the cafes from time to time and bought stock. Some months later the newspaper published a daily advertisement of the banking house of Sanft and Co. Any one who still had Gausenfeld shares could unload them here without any trouble. As a matter of fact at the beginning of the autumn not a soul held any more of those rotten stocks. But there was talk of an amalgamation of Hessling and Gausenfeld. Diederich professed to be amazed. "What about old Herr Buck?" he asked. "As chairman of the board of directors he will certainly have something to say in the matter. Or has he also sold out?" Then it was said: "He has more troubles," for his action for libel against the socialist paper had now come up for hearing. "He will probably lose," people said, and Diederich, with perfect impar-
