I have weighed my own interest in the matter, for I am anxious that you
should start upon this hazardous journey of ours up country with a mind
absolutely free from self-reproach or any money care, for thus you will
be able to do me better service. Therefore I beg that you will say no
more of the episode. I have only one thing to add, namely that I have
myself bought up at par value a few of the debentures. The price of them
will pay the lawyers and the liquidation fees; moreover they give me a
status as a shareholder which will enable me to sue Mr. Jacob for his
fraud, to which business I have already issued instructions. For please
understand that I have not paid off any shares still standing in his
name or in those of his friends."

Here I may add that nothing ever came of this action, for the lawyers
found themselves unable to serve any writ upon that elusive person,
Mr. Jacob, who by then had probably adopted the name of some other
patriarch.

"Please put it all down as a rich man's whim," he concluded.

"I can't call that a whim which has returned £1,500 odd to my pocket
that I had lost upon a gamble, Lord Ragnall."

"Do you remember, Quatermain, how you won £250 upon a gamble at my place
and what you did with it, which sum probably represented to you twenty
or fifty times what it would to me? Also if that argument does not
appeal to you, may I remark that I do not expect you to give me your
services as a professional hunter and guide for nothing."

"Ah!" I answered, fixing on this point and ignoring the rest, "now
we come to business. If I may look upon this amount as salary, a very