"And how about the mine?"
"I imagine the mine will take care of itself."
"Do you think this is courteous treatment of a business partner?"
"My dear sir, I do not take my lessons in courtesy from you. Whether you are pleased or displeased with my treatment of you is a matter of supreme indifference to me. I am tired of living in an atmosphere of suspicion, and I have done with it--that is all. You think some game is being played on you--both you and Mr. Wentworth think that--and yet you haven"t the "cuteness," as they call it here, or sharpness, to find it out. Now, a man who has suspicions he cannot prove to be well founded should keep those suspicions to himself until he can prove them. That is my advice to you. I wish you a good-day."
John Kenyon walked back to his hotel with more misgivings than ever. He wrote a letter to Wentworth detailing the conversation, telling him Melville had sailed for home, and advising him to see that gentleman when he arrived. He stayed in New York that night, and took the morning train to Montreal. In due time he arrived at Ottawa, and called on Von Brent.
He found that gentleman in his chambers, looking as if he had never left the room since the option was signed. Von Brent at first did not recognise his visitor, but after gazing a moment at him he sprang from his chair and held out his hand.
"I really did not know you," he said; "you have changed a great deal since I saw you last. You look haggard, and not at all well. What is the matter with you?"
"I do not think anything is the matter. I am in very good health, thank you; I have had a few business worries, that is all."
"Ah, yes," said Von Brent; "I am very sorry indeed you failed to form your company."
"Failed!" echoed Kenyon.
"Yes; you haven"t succeeded, have you?"
"Well, I don"t know about that; we are in a fair way to succeed. You met Longworth and Melville, who came out to see the mine? I saw Longworth in New York, and he told me you had taken them out there."
"Are they interested with you in the mine?"
"Certainly; they are helping me to form the company."
Von Brent seemed amazed.
"I did not understand that at all. In fact, I understood the exact opposite. I thought you had attempted to form a company, and failed. They showed me an attack in one of the financial papers upon you, and said that killed your chances of forming a company in London. They were here, apparently, on their own business."
"And what was their business?"
"To buy the mine."
"Have they bought it?"
"Practically, yes. Of course, while your option holds good I cannot sell it, but that, as you know, expires in a very few days."
Kenyon, finding his worst suspicions confirmed, seemed speechless with amazement, and in his agony mopped from his brow the drops collected there.
"You appear to be astonished at this," said Von Brent.
"I am very much astonished."
"Well, you cannot blame me. I have acted perfectly square in the matter.
I had no idea Longworth, and the gentleman who was with him, had any connection with you whatever. Their attention had been drawn to the mine, they said, by that article. They had investigated it and appeared to be satisfied there was something in it--in the mine, I mean, not in the article. They said they had attended a meeting which you had called, but it was quite evident you were not going to be able to form the company.
So they came here and made me a cash offer for the mine. They have deposited twenty thousand pounds at the bank here, and on the day your option closes they will give me a cheque for the amount."
"It serves me right," said Kenyon. "I have been cheated and duped. I had grave suspicions of it all along, but I did not act upon them. I have been too timorous and cowardly. This man Longworth has made a pretence of helping me to form a company. Everything he has done has been to delay me. He came out here, apparently, in the interests of the company I was forming, and now he has got the option for himself."
"Yes, he has," said Von Brent. "I may say I am very sorry indeed for the turn affairs have taken. Of course, as I have told you, I had no idea how the land lay. You see, you had placed no deposit with me, and I had to look after my own interests. However, the option is open for a few days more, and I will not turn the mine over to them till the last minute of the time has expired. Isn"t there any chance of your getting the money before then?"
"Not the slightest."
"Well, you see, in that case I cannot help myself. I am bound by a legal doc.u.ment to turn the mine over to them on receipt of the twenty thousand pounds the moment your option is ended. Everything is done legally, and I am perfectly helpless in the matter."
"Yes, I see that," said John. "Good-bye."
He went to the telegraph-office and sent a cablegram.
Wentworth received the message in London the next morning. It read:
"We are cheated. Longworth has the option on the mine in his own name."
CHAPTER x.x.xIII.
When George Wentworth received this message, he read it several times over before its full meaning dawned upon him. Then he paced up and down his room, and gave way to his feelings. His best friends, who had been privileged to hear George"s vocabulary when he was rather angry, admitted that the young man had a fluency of expression which was very more terse than proper. When the real significance of the despatch became apparent to him, George outdid himself in this particular line. Then he realized that, however consolatory such language is to a very angry man, it does little good in any practical way. He paced silently up and down the room, wondering what he could do, and the more he wondered the less light he saw through the fog. He put on his hat and went into the other room.
"Henry," he said to his partner, "do you know anybody who would lend me twenty thousand pounds?"
Henry laughed. The idea of anybody lending that sum of money, except on the very best security, was in itself extremely comic.
"Do you want it to-day?" he said.
"Yes, I want it to-day."
"Well, I don"t know any better plan than to go out into the street and ask every man you meet if he has that sum about him. You are certain to encounter men who have very much more than twenty thousand pounds, and perhaps one of them, struck by your very sane appearance at the moment, might hand over the sum to you. I think, however, George, that you would be more successful if you met the capitalist in a secluded lane some dark night, and had a good reliable club in your hand."
"You are right," said George. "Of course, there is just as much possibility of my reaching the moon as getting that sum of money on short notice."
"Yes, or on long notice either, I imagine. I know plenty of men who have the money, but I wouldn"t undertake to ask them for it, and I don"t believe you would. Still there is nothing like trying. He who tries may succeed, but no one can succeed who doesn"t try. Why not go to old Longworth? He could let you have the money in a moment if he wanted to do so. He knows you. What"s your security? What are you going to do with it--that eternal mine of yours?"
"Yes, that "eternal mine"; I want it to _be_ mine. That is why I need the twenty thousand pounds."
"Well, George, I don"t see much hope for you. You never spoke to old Longworth about it, did you? He wasn"t one of the men you intended to get into this company?"
"No, he was not. I wish he had been. He would have treated us better than his rascally nephew has done."
"Ah, that immaculate young man has been playing you tricks, has he?"
"He has played me one trick, which is enough."
"Well, why don"t you go and see the old man, and lay the case before him?
He treats that nephew as if he were his son. Now, a man will do a great deal for his son, and perhaps old Longworth might do something for his nephew."