grave formality, which
kept me miles away from him. I thanked him for the promise of the letter
of credit and then sat silent for a minute.

"By the way," said Ascher, "I have just had a visit from a man on
business in which you are interested."

"Was that the man who passed me in the anteroom before I was shown in
here?"

"Yes. He came to talk to me about Gorman's new cash register. He was
not an accredited agent, you will understand. He did not profess to
represent anybody. He was not empowered to treat with us in any way,
but----"

Ascher smiled faintly.

"I understand," I said, "a sort of informal ambassador who could easily
be disowned if anything he said turned out to be inconvenient. In
politics men of that sort are very useful; but I somehow had the idea
that business methods are more straightforward."

"All negotiations," said Ascher, "whether in politics or business are
carried on in much the same way. But before I go into his suggestions I
had better tell you how the matter stands. Mildmay sent us his report
and it was entirely favourable to the new machine. I think the invention
is likely to turn out a valuable property. We have made inquiries and
find out that the patent rights are duly protected here and in all the
chief European countries. In fact----"

"It was really that and not my travels which I came to talk to you about
to-day. I may take it that we have got a good thing."

"We think so," said Ascher, "and our opinion is confirmed by the fact
that we are not the only people who think so. If I am right about the
man who visited me this morning we have very good evidence that our
opinion is sound. The men who are in the best position to know about
cash registers, who are most interested in their future----"

"The makers of the existing machines?"

"Exactly. That is to say, if I am right about my visitor."

"But how did they--how could any one know about Tim Gorman's invention?"

Ascher shrugged his shoulders.

"Surely," I said, "Gorman can't have been such a fool as to talk to
newspaper reporters."

"We need not suppose so," said Ascher. "My experience is that anything
worth knowing always is known. The world of business is a vast
whispering gallery. There is no such thing as secrecy."

"Well," I said, "the main point is that this man did know. What did he
want?"

"He wanted us to sell the patent rights," said Ascher. "What he said
was that he had a client--he posed as some kind of