Explore "Captain Kettle on the War-Path" by Cutcliffe Hyne on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Mr. S. J. Livingstone was not a poor man, but I think he may be described broadly as an ambitious man. He had an air that some people (other than customers) found arrogant.
Soon after the War began he tried to hold up the British Admiralty for a million sterling, free of tax, and an earldom; and when this did not come off, he crossed Whitehall and tried the same game on the War Office. He got hold of some bland ass there who irritated him into saying more than was judicious, and left the building under arrest. The magistrate before whom he was hauled, called in doctors to inquire into his mental state, and was with difficulty persuaded to dismiss him with a caution.