Montague should become his cousin's husband.




CHAPTER IX - THE GREAT RAILWAY TO VERA CRUZ


'You have been a guest in his house. Then, I guess, the thing's about
as good as done.' These words were spoken with a fine, sharp, nasal
twang by a brilliantly-dressed American gentleman in one of the
smartest private rooms of the great railway hotel at Liverpool, and
they were addressed to a young Englishman who was sitting opposite to
him. Between them there was a table covered with maps, schedules, and
printed programmes. The American was smoking a very large cigar, which
he kept constantly turning in his mouth, and half of which was inside
his teeth. The Englishman had a short pipe. Mr Hamilton K. Fisker, of
the firm of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, was the American, and the
Englishman was our friend Paul, the junior member of that firm.

'But I didn't even speak to him,' said Paul.

'In commercial affairs that matters nothing. It quite justifies you in
introducing me. We are not going to ask your friend to do us a favour.
We don't want to borrow money.'

'I thought you did.'

'If he'll go in for the thing he'd be one of us, and there would be no
borrowing then. He'll join us if he's as clever as they say, because