n taken care of, and so has Plowden. They're game to agree to
anything. And let's see--Kervick is entirely my man. That leaves Watkin
and Davidson--and they don't matter. They're mere guinea-pigs. A few
hundreds apiece would shut them up, if you thought it was worth while to
give them anything at all."

"And about the property,--the rubber plantation,--that the Company
was formed to acquire and develop. I suppose there really is such a
plantation?"

"Oh, yes, it's all there right enough," Thorpe said, briefly.

"It's no good, though, is it?" the Broker asked, with affable
directness.

"Between ourselves, it isn't worth a damn," the other blithely assured
him.

The Scotchman mused with bent brows. "There ought still to be money in
it," he said, with an air of conviction.

"By the way," it occurred to Thorpe to mention, "here's something I
didn't understand. I told Rostocker here, just as a cheeky kind of joke,
that after he and Aronson had got their eight thousand five hundred, if
they thought they'd like still more shares, I'd let 'em have 'em at a
bargain--and he seemed to take it seriously. He did for a fact. Said
perhaps he could make a deal with me."

"Hm-m!" said Semple, reflectively. "I'll see if he says anything to
me. Very likely he's spotted some way of taking the thing over, and
reorganizing it, and giving it another run over the course. I'll think
it out. And now I must be off. Aren't you lunching?"

"No--I'll have the boy bring in some sandwiches," Thorpe decided. "I
want my next meal west of Temple Bar when I get round to it. I've soured
on the City for keeps."

"I wouldn't say that it had been so bad to you, either," Semple
smilingly suggested, as he turned to the door.

Thorpe grinned in satisfied comment. "Hurry back as soon as you've
finally settled with Rostocker and the other fellow," he called after
him, and began pacing the floor again.

It was nearly four o'clock when these two men, again together in the
Board Room, and having finished the inspection of some papers on the
desk, sat upright and looked at each other in tacit recognition that
final words were to be spoken.

"Well, Semple," Thorpe began, after that significant little pause, "I
want to say that I'm damned glad you've done so well for yourself in
this affair. You've been as straight as a die to me,--I owe it as much
to you as I do to myself,--and if you don't think you've got enough even
now, I want you to say so."

He