Beyond them - what? A tasteless and barbaric display, a vulgar
generosity, an ignorant and purposeless prodigality. Bah! How
different it is with those who know! There are many things, my
young friend, which I learned in my younger days, and amongst them
was the knowledge of how to spend money. How to spend it, you
understand! It is an art, believe me! I mastered it, and, until
the end came, it was magnificent. In London and Paris to-day to
have wealth and to know how to spend it is to be the equal of
princes! The salons of the beautiful fly open before you, great
men will clamour for your friendship, all the sweetest triumphs
which love and sport can offer are yours. You stalk amongst a
world of pygmies a veritable giant, the adored of women, the envied
of men! You may be old - it matters not; ugly - you will be fooled
into reckoning yourself an Adonis. Nobility is great, art is great,
genius is great, but the key to the pleasure storehouse of the world
is a key of gold - of gold!"

He broke off with a little gasp. He held his throat and looked
imploringly towards the bottle. Trent shook his head stonily.
There was something pitiful in the man's talk, in that odd mixture
of bitter cynicism and passionate earnestness, but there was also
something fascinating. As regards the brandy, however, Trent was
adamant.

"Not a drop," he declared. "What a fool you are to want it, Monty!
You're a wreck already. You want to pull through, don't you? Leave
the filthy stuff alone. You'll not live a month to enjoy your coin
if we get it!"

"Live!" Monty straightened himself out. A tremor went through all