"Yes; but I should have to explain to him that his nephew is a scoundrel."
"Very well; that is just the kind of explanation to bring the twenty thousand pounds. If his nephew really is a scoundrel, and you can prove it, you could not want a better lever than that on the old man"s money-bags."
"By Jove!" said Wentworth, "I believe I shall try it. I want to let him know, anyhow, what sort of man his nephew is. I"ll go and see him."
"I would," said the other, turning to his work.
And so George Wentworth, putting the cablegram in his pocket, went to see old Mr. Longworth in a frame of mind in which no man should see his fellow-man. He did not wait to be announced, but walked, to the astonishment of the clerk, straight through into Mr. Longworth"s room. He found the old man seated at his desk.
"Good-day, Mr. Wentworth," said the financier cordially.
"Good-day," replied George curtly. "I have come to read a cable despatch to you, or to let you read it."
He threw the paper down before the old gentleman, who adjusted his spectacles and read it. Then he looked up inquiringly at Wentworth.
"You don"t understand it, do you?" said the latter.
"I confess I do not. The Longworth in this telegram does not refer to me, does it?"
"No, it does not refer to you, but it refers to one of your house. Your nephew, William Longworth, is a scoundrel!"
"Ah!" said the old man, placing the despatch on the desk again, and removing his gla.s.ses, "have you come to tell me that?"
"Yes, I have. Did you know it before?"
"No, I did not," answered the old gentleman, his colour rising; "and I do not know it now. I know you say so, and I think very likely you will be glad to take back what you have said. I will at least give you the opportunity."
"So far from taking it back, Mr. Longworth, I shall prove it. Your nephew formed a partnership with my friend Kenyon and myself to float on the London market a certain Canadian mine."
"My dear sir," broke in the old gentleman, "I have no desire to hear of my nephew"s private speculations; I have nothing to do with them. I have nothing to do with your mine. The matter is of no interest whatever to me, and I must decline to hear anything about it. You are, also, if you will excuse my saying so, not in a fit state of temper to talk to any gentleman. If you like to come back here when you are calmer, I shall be very pleased to listen to what you have to say."
"I shall never be calmer on this subject. I have told you that your nephew is a scoundrel. You are pleased to deny the accusation."
"I do not deny it; I merely said I did not know it was the case, and I do not believe it, that is all."
"Very well; the moment I begin to show you proof that things are as I say----"
"My dear sir," cried the elder man, with some heat, "you are not showing proof. You are merely making a.s.sertions, and a.s.sertions about a man who is absent--who is not here to defend himself. If you have anything to say against William Longworth, come and say it when he is here, and he shall answer for himself. It is cowardly of you, and ungenerous to me, to make a number of accusations which I am in no wise able to refute."
"Will you listen to what I have to say?"
"No; I will not."
"Then, by G.o.d, you shall!" and with that Wentworth strode to the door and turned the key, while the old man rose from his seat and faced him.
"Do you mean to threaten me, sir, in my own office?"
"I mean to say, Mr. Longworth, that I have made a statement which I am going to prove to you. I mean that you shall listen to me, and listen to me _now_!"
"And I say, if you have anything to charge against my nephew, come and say it when he is here."
"When he is here, Mr. Longworth, it will be too late to say it; at present you can repair the injury he has done. When he returns to England you cannot do so, no matter how much you might wish to make the attempt."
The old man stood irresolute for a moment, then he sat down in his chair again.
"Very well," he said, with a sigh; "I am not so combative as I once was.
Go on with your story."
"My story is very short," said Wentworth; "it simply amounts to this: You know your nephew formed a partnership with us in relation to the Canadian mine?"
"I know nothing about it, I tell you," answered Mr. Longworth.
"Very well, you know it now."
"I know you say so."
"Do you doubt my word?"
"I shall tell you more definitely when I hear what you have to say. Go on."
"Well, your nephew, pretending to aid us in forming this company, did everything to r.e.t.a.r.d our progress. He engaged offices that took a long time to fit up, and which we had at last to take in hand ourselves. Then he left for a week, leaving us no address, and refusing to answer the letters I sent to his office for him. On one pretext or another, the forming of the company was delayed; until at length, when the option by which Mr. Kenyon held the mine had less than a month to run, your nephew went to America in company with Mr. Melville, ostensibly to see and report upon the property. After waiting a certain length of time and hearing nothing from him (he had promised to cable us), Kenyon went to America to get a renewal of the option. This cablegram explains his success. He finds, on going there, that your nephew has secured the option of the mine in his own name, and, as Kenyon says, we are cheated.
Now have you any doubt whether your nephew is a scoundrel or not?"
Mr. Longworth mused for a few moments on what the young man had told him.
"If what you say is exactly true, there is no doubt William has been guilty of a piece of very sharp practice."
"Sharp practice!" cried the other. "You might as well call robbery sharp practice!"
"My dear sir, I have listened to you; now I ask you to listen to me. If, as I say, what you have stated is true, my nephew has done something which I think an honourable man would not do; but as to that I cannot judge until I hear his side of the story. It may put a different complexion on the matter, and I have no doubt it will; but even granting your version is true in every particular, what have I to do with it? I am not responsible for my nephew"s actions. He has entered into a business connection, it seems, with two young men, and has outwitted them. That is probably what the world would say about it. Perhaps, as you say, he has been guilty of something worse, and has cheated his partners. But even admitting everything to be true, I do not see how I am responsible in any way."
"Legally, you are not; morally, I think you are."
"Why?"
"If he were your son----"
"But he is not my son; he is my nephew."
"If your son had committed a theft, would you not do everything in your power to counteract the evil he had done?"
"I might, and I might not. Some fathers pay their sons" debts, others do not. I cannot say what action I should take in a purely imaginary case."
"Very well; all I have to say is, our option runs out in two or three days. Twenty thousand pounds will secure the mine for us. I want that twenty thousand pounds before the option ceases."
"And do you expect me to pay you twenty thousand pounds for this?"
"Yes, I do."