"because it's a devilish unsavoury
situation for us. The Siowitha Club fully realises it, Captain Selwyn,
and its members--some of 'em--thought that perhaps--er--you--ah--being
the sort of man who can--ah--understand the sort of language we
understand, it might not be amiss to--to--"

"Why did you not call on Mr. Neergard?" asked Selwyn coolly. Yet he was
taken completely by surprise, for he did not know that Neergard had gone
ahead and secured options on his own responsibility--which practically
amounted to a violation of the truce between them.

Draymore hesitated, then with the brutality characteristic of the
overfed: "I don't give a damn, Captain Selwyn, what Neergard thinks; but
I do want to know what a gentleman like yourself, accidentally
associated with that man, thinks of this questionable proceeding."

"Do you mean by 'questionable proceeding' your coming here?--or do you
refer to the firm's position in this matter?" asked Selwyn sharply.
"Because, Draymore, I am not very widely experienced in the customs and
usages of commercial life, and I do not know whether it is usual for an
associate member of a firm to express, unauthorised, his views on
matters concerning the firm to any Tom, Dick, and Harry who questions
him."

"But you know what is the policy of your own firm," suggested Harmon,
wincing, and displaying his teeth under his bright red lips; "and all we
wish to know is, what Neergard expects us to pay for this rascally
lesson in the a-b-c of Long Island realty."

"I don't know," replied Selwyn, bitterly annoyed, "what Mr. Neergard
proposes to do. And if I did I should refer you to him."

"May I ask," began Orchil, "whether the land will be ultimately for
sale?"

"Oh, everything's always for sale," broke in Mottly impatiently; "what's
the use of asking that? What you meant to inquire was the price we're
expected to pay for this masterly squeeze in realty."

"And to that," replied Selwyn more sharply still, "I must answer again
that I don't know. I know nothing about it; I did not know that Mr.
Neergard had acquired control of the property; I don't know what he
means to do with it. And, gentlemen, may I ask why you feel at liberty
to come to me instead of to Mr. Neergard?"

"A desire to deal with one of our own kind, I suppose," returned
Draymore bluntly. "And, for that matter," he said, turning to the
others, "we might have known that Captain Selwyn could have had no hand
in and no knowledge