'My story is very short,' said Wentworth; 'it simply amounts to this:
You know your nephew formed a partnership with us in relation to the
Canadian mine?'

'I know nothing about it, I tell you,' answered Mr. Longworth.

'Very well, you know it now.'

'I know you say so.'

'Do you doubt my word?'

'I shall tell you more definitely when I hear what you have to say. Go
on.'

'Well, your nephew, pretending to aid us in forming this company, did
everything to retard our progress. He engaged offices that took a long
time to fit up, and which we had at last to take in hand ourselves. Then
he left for a week, leaving us no address, and refusing to answer the
letters I sent to his office for him. On one pretext or another, the
forming of the company was delayed; until at length, when the option by
which Mr. Kenyon held the mine had less than a month to run, your nephew
went to America in company with Mr. Melville, ostensibly to see and
report upon the property. After waiting a certain length of time and
hearing nothing from him (he had promised to cable us), Kenyon went to
America to get a renewal of the option. This cablegram explains his
success. He finds, on going there, that your nephew has secured the
option of the mine in his own name, and, as Kenyon says, we are cheated.
Now have you any doubt whether your nephew is a scoundrel or not?'