When Egypt Went Broke

In the financially strained town of Egypt, hard-driving moneylender Tasper Britt rules through mortgages, tax sales, and legal cunning, earning the nickname "Twelve-per-cent Britt." But beneath his dyed hair, false wig, and grand memorial to his dead wife lies a man newly unsettled by age, vanity, and desire, especially when his thoughts turn to the beautiful Vona Harnden. As Britt polishes his image, dines in the shabby local tavern, and schemes toward politics, his ambitions spill into public life and expose the town's decay, resentment, and comic absurdity. His self-importance soon collides with family and prophecy: a bitter feud with his brother Usial, and the wild denunciations of Prophet Elias, who turns scripture into a weapon against usury and oppression. At the Egypt Trust Company, the arrival of capable young cashier Frank Vaniman and Vona's poised presence complicate Britt's jealousy and the town's social tensions. Then a baffling bank crisis erupts, with a seemingly robbed vault, strange disks, chloroform clues, and a mystery that deepens when Elias is found inside the vault itself. As Examiner Starr takes control, Vona's clear-eyed testimony and the vanishing "assets" reveal that the scandal may be tied not to theft, but to invention, deception, and the fragile machinery of power. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.