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.
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