flushed and nervous.

"I am afraid you must have misunderstood my note, Mr. Trent," he
stammered. But Trent, remembering all that he had gone through to raise
the money, stopped him short.

"This is not a friendly call, Mr. Sinclair," he said, "but simply a
matter of business. I wish to clear my account with you to the last
halfpenny, and I will take my shares away with me. I have paid in the
amount I owe. Let one of your clerks make out the interest account."

The manager rang the bell for the key of the security safe. He opened it
and took out the shares with fingers which trembled a good deal.

"Did I understand you, Mr. Trent, that you desired to absolutely close
the account?" he asked.

"Most decidedly," Trent answered.

"We shall be very sorry to lose you."

"The sorrow will be all on your side, then," Trent answered grimly. "You
have done your best to ruin me, you and that blackguard Da Souza, who
brought me here. If you had succeeded in lumping those shares upon the
market to-day or to-morrow, you know very well what the result would
have been. I don't know whose game you have been playing, but I can
guess!"

"I can assure you, Mr. Trent," the manager declared in his suavest
and most professional manner, "that you are acting under a complete
misapprehension. I will admit that our notice was a little short.
Suppose we withdraw it altogether, eh? I am quite satisfied. We will put
back the shares in the safe and you shall keep your money."

"No, I'm d--d if you do!" Trent answered bluntly. "You've had your money
and I'll have the shares. I don't leave this bank without them, and I'll
be shot if ever I enter it again."

So Trent, with his back against the wall and not a friend to help him,
faced for twenty-four hours the most powerful bull syndicate which had
ever been formed against a single Company. Inquiries as to his right
of title had poured in upon him, and to all of them he had returned the
most absolute and final assurances. Yet he knew when closing-time came,
that he had exhausted every farthing he possessed in the world--it
seemed hopeless to imagine that he could survive another day. But with
the morning came a booming cable from Bekwando. There had been a great
find of gold before ever a shaft had been sunk; an expert, from whom as
yet nothing had been heard, wired an excited and wonderful report. Then
the men who had held on to their Bekwandos rustled their morning papers
and walked smiling