'Not the slightest.'

'Well, you see, in that case I cannot help myself. I am bound by a legal
document to turn the mine over to them on receipt of the twenty thousand
pounds the moment your option is ended. Everything is done legally, and I
am perfectly helpless in the matter.'

'Yes, I see that,' said John. 'Good-bye.'

He went to the telegraph-office and sent a cablegram.

Wentworth received the message in London the next morning. It read:

'We are cheated. Longworth has the option on the mine in his own name.'




CHAPTER XXXIII.


When George Wentworth received this message, he read it several times
over before its full meaning dawned upon him. Then he paced up and down
his room, and gave way to his feelings. His best friends, who had been
privileged to hear George's vocabulary when he was rather angry, admitted
that the young man had a fluency of expression which was very more terse
than proper. When the real significance of the despatch became apparent
to him, George outdid himself in this particular line. Then he realized
that, however consolatory such language is to a very angry man, it does
little good in any practical way. He paced silently up and down the room,