derstand this matter properly. As
a matter of fact I suppose that Monty is entitled to half the
purchase-money you received for the Company."

Trent assented.

"It isn't that I grudge him that," he said, "although, with the other
financial enterprises I have gone into, I don't know how I should raise
half a million of money to pay him off. But don't you see my sale of the
charter to the Company is itself, Monty being alive, an illegal act.
The title will be wrong, and the whole affair might drift into Chancery,
just when a vigorous policy is required to make the venture a success.
If Monty were here and in his right mind, I think we could come to
terms, but, when I saw him last at any rate, he was quite incapable, and
he might become a tool to anything. The Bears might get hold of him and
ruin us all. In short, it's a beastly mess!"

Francis looked at him keenly.

"What do you expect me to do?" he asked.

"I have no right to expect anything," Trent said. "However, I saved your
life and you may consider yourself therefore under some obligation to
me. I will tell you then what I would have you do. In the first place,
I know no more where he is than you do. He may be in England or he may
not. I shall go to Da Souza, who probably knows. You can come with me if
you like. I don't want to rob the man of a penny. He shall have all he
is entitled to--only I do want to arrange terms with him quietly, and
not have the thing talked about. It's as much for the others' sake as
my own. The men who came into my Syndicate trusted me, and I don't want
them left."

Francis took a little silver case from his pocket, lit a cigarette, and
smoked for a moment or two thoughtfully.

"It is possible," he said at last, "that you are an honest man. On the
other hand you must admit that the balance of probability from my point
of view is on the other side. Let us travel backwards a little way--to
my first meeting with you. I witnessed the granting of this concession
to you by the King of Bekwando. According to its wording you were
virtually Monty's heir, and Monty was lying drunk, in a climate where
strong waters and death walk hand-in-hand. You leave him in the bush,
proclaim his death, and take sole possession. I find him alive, do the
best I can for him, and here the first act ends. Then what afterwards?
I hear of you as an empire-maker and a millionaire. Nevertheless, Monty
was alive and you knew he was alive, but when I reach Attra he