"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 had spoken in tones of sincere liking, and the other answered him in kind. "I have more than I ever dreamed of making in a lifetime when I came to London,"he declared. "If my father were alive, and heard me tell him that in one year, out of a single transaction, I had cleared over sixty-five thousand pounds, he'd be fit to doubt the existence of a Supreme Being.
I'm obliged to you for your good words, Thorpe. It's not only been profitable to work with you, but it has been a great education and a great pleasure as well."Thorpe nodded his appreciation. "I'm going to ask a favour of you," he said. "I want to leave the general run of my investments and interests here in your hands, to keep track of I don't want to speculate at all, in the ordinary meaning of the word. Even after I bury a pot of money in non-productive real estate, I shall have an income of 50,000 pounds at the very least, and perhaps twice as much. There's no fun in gambling when you've got such a bank as that behind you. But if there are good, wise changes to be made in investments, or if things turn up in the way of chances that I ought to know about, I want to feel that you're on the spot watching things and doing things in my interest.
And as it won't be regular broker's work, I shall want to pay you a stated sum--whatever you think is right.""That will arrange itself easily enough," said Semple.
"I shall have the greatest pleasure in caring for whatever you put in my hands. And I think I can promise that it will be none the worse for the keeping.""I don't need any assurance on that score,"
Thorpe declared, cordially. "You're the one sterling, honest man I've known in the City."It was the Broker's turn to make a little acknowledging bow.
His eyes gleamed frank satisfaction at being so well understood.
"I think I see the way that more money can be made out of the Company," he said, abruptly changing the subject.
"I've had but a few words with Rostocker about it--but it's clear to me that he has a plan. He will be coming to you with a proposition.""Well, he won't find me, then," interposed Thorpe, with a comfortable smile. "I leave all that to you.""I suspect that his plan," continued Semple, "is to make a sub-rosa offer of a few shillings for the majority of the shares, and reconstitute the Board, and then form another Company to buy the property and good-will of the old one at a handsome price. Now if that would be a good thing for him 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 Imay 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,--Idon'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.
