uld
suit both of us."

"I scarcely think so," said Deringham. "In my case, I really do not
mind whether he gets the dollars from Carnaby or not."

"No?" said Hallam. "Then you'll have to tell me what you want."

"I don't want him to come over to England too soon. If anything kept
him up there among the mountains a month or so longer than he expected,
so that I should have time to straighten up things a little, I would
not complain."

"And," said Hallam, "you would be ready to pay for it?"

Deringham bent his head. "Yes. To a moderate extent."

Hallam sat silent for a time, and then looked up with a glint in his
beady eyes. "It could be done. Well, I don't want him to find that
silver, and if he doesn't get through his prospecting in the next month
or so he'll not find much of anything under six feet of snow, and I'll
have fixed things up as I want them before it's melted. Now you're
holding pretty heavy in the Aconada mine, and I've been wanting to get
my foot in there for a long while."

Deringham stood up, and thrust aside the bottle Hallam passed him.
"Before we go any further I want you to understand that if Alton is
held up there until December is over it is all I ask," he said.

Hallam nodded. "Oh, yes," he said. "All I want is so many of those
shares transferred to me."

They debated for a while, and then Deringham said, "I would sooner fix
it through a third party."

Hallam laughed unpleasantly. "That would suit, but I'd want your
cheque to buy them with made out payable to me."

"It would," said Deringham, "not suit me."

"Then we can't make a deal. It's me that's putting this thing through,
and if anything goes wrong I'm anxious to have somebody to stand in
with me as well as pick up the dollars if it doesn't. I'm talking
quite straight. There it is. Take it or leave it."

Deringham was silent again. Then he laughed a little. "Since I cannot
apparently do anything else, I'll take it."

Hallam filled up both glasses. "Then that's all," he said. "Here's my
respects to the Somasco Consolidated."

Deringham just touched his glass and went out, while Hallam, who sat
down and emptied his, smiled ironically. "That man might have kept his
dollars, and I'd be quite pleased if Alton stayed up there a good deal
more than two months," said he.

Deringham was in the meanwhile hastily writing out telegraphic messages
which were to cause a little astonishment on the London stock market