"Ah! yes," he said seriously, "the distribution of money and honour in this world is very unequal. Clive is on that mine, isn't he?"

"Oh, yes; consulting engineer and referee scientific, and all the confounded cant of it. As for a good thing--well, I'm told not to grumble, and to be content with my commission and all the shares I can get taken up."

"Does seem hard," said Wrigley. "Only for a year or two, eh? And then a sale and a burst up?"

"Don't you make any mistake about that, old man," said Jessop sulkily.

"It's a big thing."

"Then why wasn't it taken up before?"

"Because people are fools. They've been so awfully humbugged, too, over mines. This is a very old mine that the governor has been trying to get hold of on the quiet for years, but he couldn't work it till old Lord Belvers died. It has never been worked by machinery, and, as you may say, has only been skinned. There are mints of money in it, my boy, and so I tell you."

Wrigley smiled.

"What is your commission on all the shares you place?"

"Precious little. Eh? Oh, I see; you think I want to plant a few. Not likely. If you wanted a hundred, I couldn't get them for you."

"No, they never are to be had."

"Chaff away. I don't care. You know it's a good thing, or else our governor wouldn't have put his name to it and set so much money as he has."

"To come up and bear a good crop, eh? There, I won't chaff about it, Jessop, boy. I know it's a good thing, and you ought to make a rare swag out of it."

"So that you could too, eh?"

"Of course; so that we could both make a good thing out of it. One is not above making a few thou's, I can tell you. Lead, isn't it?"

"Yes, solid lead. None of your confounded flashy gold-mines."

"But they sound well with the public, Jessop. Gold--gold--gold. The public is not a Ba.s.sanio, to choose the lead casket."

"It was a trump ace, though, my boy."

"So it was. But you are only to get a little commission out of sales over this, eh?"

"That's all; and it isn't worth the candle, for there'll be no more to sell. The shares are going up tremendously."

"So I hear--so I hear," said Wrigley thoughtfully; "and you are left out in the cold, and have to come borrowing. Jessop, old man, over business matters you and I are business men, and there is, as the saying goes, no friendship in business."

"Not a bit," said Jessop, with an oath.

"But we are old friends, and we have seen a little life together."

"Ah! we have," said Jessop, nodding his head.

"And, as the world goes, I think we have a little kind of pleasant feeling one for the other."

"Humph! I suppose so," said Jessop, watching the other narrowly with the keen eye of a man who deals in hard cash, and knows the value of a sixteenth per cent, in a large transaction. "Well, what's up?"

"I was thinking, my dear fellow," said the young lawyer, in a low voice, "how much pleasanter the world would be for you and me if we were rich.

But no, no, no. You would not care to fight against your father and brother."

"Perhaps before long there will only be my brother to fight against,"

said Jessop meaningly.

The lawyer looked at him keenly.

"You should not say that without a good reason, Jessop."

"No, I should not."

"Well, I don't ask for your confidence, so let it slide. It was tempting; but there is your brother."

"Curse my brother!" cried Jessop savagely. "Is he always to stand in my light?"

"That rests with you."

"Look here, what do you mean?"

"Do you wish me to state what I mean?"

"Yes," said Jessop excitedly.

"Then I meant this. Your father is very rich, and knows how to protect his interests."

"Trust him for that."

"Your brother is well provided for, and can make his way."

"Oh, hang him, yes. Fortune's favourite, and no mistake."

"Then what would you say if--But one moment. You tell me, as man to man, to whom the business would be vital, that the `White Virgin' mine is really a big thing?"

"I tell you, as man to man, that it will be a tremendously big thing."

"Good!" said the lawyer slowly, and in a low voice. "Then what would you say if I put you in the way of making a few hundred thousand pounds?"

"And yourself too?"

"Of course."

"Then never mind what I should say. Can you do it?"

"Yes. You and I are about the only two men who could work that affair rightly; and as the whole business is to others a speculation, if they lose--well, they have gambled, and must take their chance."

"Of course. But--speak out."

"No, not out, Jessop; we must not so much as whisper. I have that affair under my thumb, and there is a fortune in it for us--the stockbroker and the lawyer. Shall we make a contract of it, hand in hand?"