An active little man was Captain Boodle, always doing something or anxious to do something in his own line of business.

Small speculations in money, so concocted as to leave the risk against him smaller than the chance on his side, constituted Captain Boodle's trade; and in that trade he was indefatigable, ingenious, and, to a certain extent, successful.

The worst of the trade was this: that though he worked at it about twelve hours a day, to the exclusion of all other interests in life, he could only make out of it an income which would have been considered a beggarly failure at any other profession.

When he netted a pound a day he considered himself to have done very well; but he could not do that every day in the week.

To do it often required unremitting exertion.