lifted on the most astonishing wave of prosperity that perhaps has ever been known in any country-never in my thirty years of residence has London known so prosperous a period; and Hooley was an optimist to the fingers' tips, suited perfectly to the time, without a suspicion that there could be a change in feeling or a slump in finance.
When I got to know him pretty well, I found to my amazement that he had a man named Martin Rucker for a partner, who never helped him in any way; and it was months before I learned that Rucker had been a bicycle agent and had put some money in with Hooley at the very beginning and had remained with him as a sort of deadweight ever afterwards. It was he, in fact, who brought about Hooley's first fall.
I soon got the idea that the best companies to promote would be those which had spent most in advertising in the past and were therefore widely known. I put this idea to Hooley, and he accepted it at once. 'You ought to turn Bovril into a company,' I said, 'because every one knows of it and it would go like wildfire; and Schweppe's soda water, too.'
'Go to it,' said Hooley; 'get me an option on any such concern, bring it to me, and you can count on a fair deal.'
I immediately went to work to get to know the owners of Bovril: it was really in the hand of one person, a Mr. Johnson, I think. Coming from Hooley, I was admirably received and soon found that the company was making something over a hundred thousand pounds a year, and that they wanted a good deal over a million for it. I went with the news to Hooley, who told me to go ahead if the figures were correct. I returned and began to bargain; the seller wanted about a million and a half, and I wanted to bring him to a million and a quarter. We had practically decided on a million and three hundred and fifty thousand pounds, when one day he laughed at me and told me that he had accepted an offer of two millions that day, that it was all settled and that Hooley was the purchaser. I drove immediately to the Midland Grand Hotel to see Hooley and found it was all true.
'You were too slow, my boy,' he said, 'much too slow: another man told me he could get it for two millions and I told him to put it through, and I gave him a check as deposit.'
'You have done me out of the ten percent which you promised me,' I said,
'because I was trying to get it under a million and a half, and it was practically settled.'
'Don't talk like that: ' cried Hooley, 'do you wish to show your brains? In that room there are twenty financiers, all rich men; you know more about Bovril than almost any one; you have been at it over a fortnight; go in and persuade them that two millions is a fair price and I will give you ten thousand at once.
Is it a deal?'
'I'll do my best,' I said.
Hooley opened the door and introduced me to a crowded room with the words, 'Frank Harris has been looking into Bovril for a month, knows all about it, and is prepared to show you that two millions is a low price for it.' A large man thrust himself forward at once, whom I afterwards knew as Nocton, a very able solicitor. 'Have we the figures correct,' he said, 'that Bovril has never made one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in a year? If so, it ought to be capitalized at about a million and a half at the very outside. Why should two millions be given for it?'
'The growth of the business in the last five years,' I said, 'since they began to advertise widely, has been most extraordinary: the income has more than doubled, has practically grown from fifty thousand a year to one hundred and forty thousand; it is only fair to suppose that it will grow in the same proportion in the next five years, and even more, for as a Hooley promotion it will be advertised everywhere and should therefore be cheap at three millions. Besides, it has no competitors and it has become a household name in Great Britain. Given a proper prospectus, every one will take shares in Bovril.'
'You are evidently the man to write it,' said Nocton. And from that time we were friends, for Hooley backed up the idea at once.
I got away as soon as possible, seeing that I was not wanted. In ten minutes Hooley came to me in another room. 'You have done the trick, my boy; a cool million has been subscribed on my terms, and I owe you ten thousand. Will you have it in cash or shares?'
'Half cash, half shares,' I said.
'Good for you,' he said, and then and there wrote me a check for five thousand pounds and a note to say that I should have five thousand shares when the Bovril promotion was completed. While he was writing, another thought came into my head: 'Why not let me sketch out the prospectus, as Nocton suggested?'
'You are trenching on Broadley's domain,' he said, 'and I have almost promised it to someone else: still, there is five thousand pounds in it-go to it-if your argument is the best, you will probably get it.'
'Thanks,' I said, and away I went.
The greater part of my scheme appeared later as the Bovril prospectus. I had taken pains to study the law and to keep within it in every particular.
I won't attempt to describe all my further financial ventures with Hooley; it is enough to say that I took a small part in several of his promotions, like the rest of his supporters. I would put in, say, five thousand pounds in cash, on condition that I got ten thousand in cash or shares if the deal came off successfully. I remember particularly taking such a share in the Schweppe promotion, which was not one of his great successes, and he left some three thousand pounds unpaid to me.
His failure was astonishingly sudden. Martin Rucker, his partner, wanted to buy an estate and become a country gentleman, and finally settled with Hooley for a million pounds cash for his half share. Hooley gave him the million cash, although Broadley and I both protested that it was madness to strip himself of so great a sum in cash; but Hooley was not to be argued with or persuaded. He gave the million and Rucker was seen no more. But almost immediately the financial tide which had so far been on the flow began to ebb. Hooley involved himself in Manchester in the Trafford Park scheme, and suddenly became in need of cash: the banks, as usual scenting necessity, drew in their credits, and Hooley, though several times a millionaire on paper, was soon in financial difficulty.
He explained all this to Broadley and myself at some length, and it occurred to me that I might be able to interest Beit in his schemes and so float Hooley over his difficulty. I went to Beit and talked the Trafford Park scheme at some length. It was really a great enterprise: Beit, seeing it, at once promised his support on conditions. 'We will go in as partners,' he said, 'on an even footing; I will put up five hundred thousand pounds and so must Hooley, and the scheme shall be developed by him, and we will divide afterwards.'
Greatly excited, I hurried back to Hooley and told bun how I had succeeded; he too was delighted. We were to meet Beit on the following Monday for lunch at the Savoy Hotel, and the provisional partnership would then be concluded. But on the Thursday Hooley came to me and told me that he could only raise three hundred and fifty thousand pounds in cash, that his banks had refused him the other one hundred and fifty thousand, and therefore he would put up shares for double the amount. I begged him not to alter the agreement in any way; I felt certain that as soon as the cooperation was whispered, a dozen of Beit's friends would be dead against his participation with Hooley.
Hooley went again to the banks and returned to me on the Saturday saying,
'It is impossible; I can put up four hundred thousand, but the last one hundred thousand must be made up by shares.'
I begged him to use every effort, and he said that he had-it was impossible, so I went to the lunch with Beit alone to tell him Hooley's latest decision. The moment I described his position, Beit said, 'That settles it; my partner has been terribly against the whole business. Wernher won't hear of Hooley, and now as I can get out without breaking my word, I won't go on.'
I went back and told Hooley and found him in a strange mood. He didn't care what happened; it didn't matter, for they couldn't take away his ability to make money. The Trafford Park scheme was the best in the world; he would work it through somehow: Beit's aid was not so important.
'Beit,' I said, 'could put ten millions cash on the table if he wanted to; with his backing, you would have been the strongest financial force in England, that is to say, in the world today. I am very sorry.'
A little later Hooley announced coolly that he was going into bankruptcy. 'It seems to me to be pure madness,' I said to Broadley. But Hooley went on like a naughty child, who, having wet one toe by chance, would wade into the gutter to his neck. He made himself a bankrupt and shortly afterwards was sent to Brixton Prison for a year, apparently to teach him that to lose six million in England was a crime.
Of course, he often exaggerated and talked wildly; it was part of the optimistic nature of the man and a consequence of his astonishing success; but I don't believe that Hooley ever tried to cheat any one dishonorably
