"Jordan declares he does not like to be accountable for an unsatisfactory balance sheet.

I take it he would much less like to be made accountable for a bad bankruptcy! No doubt you sympathize with him ?" It was obvious that they did so and one said, "If I thought my occupying a seat on the Board would lead to this, I would sooner have given my shares away!" "I have not talked about my feelings," Cartwright went on.

"All the same, I am head of the old house; you can imagine I do not want to see it fall.

But rates are not always low, and if I'm not embarrassed by rash meddlers, my persuasion is, I can keep the fleet running until better times arrive." He saw he had won them.

The number of shares they owned was not very large: for the most part, the men were rich and not disturbed about their money.