'And what do you expect to sell it for?'
'Fifty thousand pounds.'
'Fifty thousand pounds! That will leave nothing to divide up among--by
the way, how many are there in this thing--yourself alone?'
'No; my friend Wentworth shares with me.'
'Share and share alike?'
'Yes.'
'Of course, you think this mine is worth the money you ask for it--there
is no swindle about it, is there?'
Kenyon drew himself up sharply as this remark was made. Then he answered
coldly:
'If there was any swindle about it, I should have nothing to do with it.'
'Well, you see, I didn't know; mining swindles are not such rarities as
you may imagine. If the mine is so valuable, why are the proprietors
anxious to sell?'
'The owners are in Austria, and the mine in Canada, and so it is rather
at arm's-length, as it were. They are mining for mica, but the mine is
more valuable in other respects than it is as a mica property. They have
placed a figure on the mine which is more than it has cost them so far.'
'You know its value in those other respects?'
'I do.'
'Does anyone know this except yourself?'
'I think not--no one but my friend Wentworth.'
'How did you come to learn its value?'
'By visiting the mine. Wentworth and I went together to see it.'
'Oh, is Wentworth also a mining expert?'
'No; he is an accountant in London.'
'Both of you were sent out by the London Syndicate, I understand, to look
after their mines, or the mines they thought of purchasing, were you
not?'
'We were.
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