The Episode of the Financial Napoleon
"The Episode of the Financial Napoleon" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse and C. H. Bovill, which first appeared in the United Kingdom in the May 1914 issue of the Strand, and in the United States in the June 1916 Pictorial Review. It was published in book form in the collection A Man of Means in 1991, and is sometimes referred to by the title "The Bolt for the Blue".
It is the second of six stories to feature Roland Bleke, a young man for whom financial success is always a mixed blessing.
Plot
The aeroplane which flew Roland Bleke to freedom at the end of "The Episode of the Landlady's Daughter" lands in the garden of the Sussex home of one Geoffrey Windlebird, financier of somewhat dubious standing. A perpetual juggler of near-bankrupt companies, Windelbird is on the edge of bankruptcy and scandal as a mining claim he has heavily oversold is about to be exposed. Bleke knows him by reputation, and he, having been shown Bleke's picture in the newspaper by his wife, knows of Bleke's recent windfall.
Bleke, sick after his cold flight, is taken in by the Windlebirds. Worried that his fiancee may object to his disappearance, he arranges with Windelbird to have her paid off, a deal on which Windelbird takes a handsome profit. Windelbird then talks Bleke into investing much of his fortune in his Wild-Cat Reef mining venture, selling him shares he says are owned by a friend.
Next day, Bleke finds Mrs Windlebird in a state of anxiety. The Wild-Cat Reef, she says, has dropped sharply in value, and her husband feels terrible for having persuaded Bleke to throw away his money. She will, she offers, buy back his shares with her small savings, that he may not be left totally penniless. Bleke, touched by her kindness, generously refuses the offer.
The newspapers arrive, and Bleke sees that Wild-Cat has become a huge success, being compared to Klondike. His shares have quadrupled in value overnight; he feels sorry, he says, for Mr Windelbird's friend, who had so recently sold his stock...