m to do, it would be a good thing for me
to do. I shall go over it all carefully, in detail, this evening. And I
suppose, if I see my way clear before me, than I may rely upon your good
feeling in the matter. I would do all the work and assume all the risk,
and, let us say, divide any profits equally--you in turn giving me a
free hand with all your shares, and your influence with the Directors."

"I'll do better still," Thorpe told him, upon brief reflection.
"Reconstitute the Board and make Lord Plowden Chairman,--I don't imagine
the Marquis would have the nerve to go on with it,--and I'll make a free
gift of my shares to you two--half and half. You'll find him all right
to work with,--if you can only get him up in the morning,--and I've kind
o' promised him something of the sort. Does that suit you?" Semple's
countenance was thoughtful rather than enthusiastic. "I'm more skeptical
about Lords than you are," he observed, "but if he's amenable, and
understands that his part is to do what I tell him to do, I've no doubt
we shall hit it off together."

"Oh, absolutely!" said Thorpe, with confidence. "I'll see to it that he
behaves like a lamb. You're to have an absolutely free hand. You're to
do what you like,--wind the Company up, or sell it out, or rig it up
under a new name and catch a new set of gudgeons with it,--whatever you
damned please. When I trust a man, I trust him."

The two friends, their faces brightened and their voices mellowed by
this serene consciousness of their mutual trust in each other's loyalty
and integrity, dwelt no further upon these halcyon beginnings of a
fresh plan for plundering the public. They spoke instead on personal
topics--of the possibility of Semple's coming to Scotland during the
autumn, and of the chance of Thorpe's wintering abroad. All at once
Thorpe found himself disclosing the fact of his forthcoming marriage,
though he did not mention the name of the lady's father, and under
the gracious stress of this announcement they drank again, and clinked
glasses fervently. When Semple at last took his leave, they shook hands
with the deep-eyed earnestness of comrades who have been through battle
and faced death together.

It was not until Thorpe stood alone that the full realizing sense of
what the day meant seemed to come to him. Fruition was finally complete:
the last winnowing of the great harvest had been added to the pile.
Positively nothing remained for him but to enter and enj