'Well, I don't know about that; we are in a fair way to succeed. You met
Longworth and Melville, who came out to see the mine? I saw Longworth in
New York, and he told me you had taken them out there.'

'Are they interested with you in the mine?'

'Certainly; they are helping me to form the company.'

Von Brent seemed amazed.

'I did not understand that at all. In fact, I understood the exact
opposite. I thought you had attempted to form a company, and failed. They
showed me an attack in one of the financial papers upon you, and said
that killed your chances of forming a company in London. They were here,
apparently, on their own business.'

'And what was their business?'

'To buy the mine.'

'Have they bought it?'

'Practically, yes. Of course, while your option holds good I cannot sell
it, but that, as you know, expires in a very few days.'

Kenyon, finding his worst suspicions confirmed, seemed speechless with
amazement, and in his agony mopped from his brow the drops collected
there.