going. I shall have a blonde secretary like
Miss Grosvenor—is it Grosvenor? I suppose
you’ve snaffled her. But I shall get one just
like her. ‘Yes, Mr. Lancelot, no, Mr. Lancelot.
Your tea, Mr. Lancelot.’ ”
“Oh, don’t play the fool,” snapped
Percival.
“Why are you so angry, my dear brother?
Don’t you look forward to having me sharing
your city cares?”
“You haven’t the least conception of the
mess everything’s in.”
“No. You’ll have to put me wise to all
that.”
“First you’ve got to understand that for the
last six months—no, more, a year, father’s not
been himself. He’s done the most incredibly
foolish things, financially. Sold out good
stock, acquired various wild-cat holdings.
Sometimes he’s really thrown away money
230
hand over fist. Just, one might say, for the
fun of spending it.”
“In fact,” said Lance, “it’s just as well for
the family that he had taxine in his tea.”
“That’s a very ugly way of putting it, but
in essence you’re quite right. It’s about the
only thing that saved us from bankruptcy.
But we shall have to be extremely conservative
and go very cautiously for a bit.”
Lance shook his head.
“I don’t agree with you. Caution never
does anyone any good. You must take a few
risks, strike out. You must go for something
big.”
“ “I don’t agree,” said Percy. “Caution and
economy. Those are our watchwords.”
“Not mine,” said Lance.
“You’re only the junior partner, remember,”
said Percival.
“All right, all right. But I’ve got a little sayso
all the same.”
Percival walked up and down the room
agitatedly.
“It’s no good. Lance. I’m fond of you and
all that—-”
“Are you?” Lance interpolated. Percival
did not appear to hear him.
“. . . but I really don’t think we’re going to
231
pull together at all. Our outlooks are totally
different.”
“That may be an advantage,” said Lance.
“The only sensible thing,” said Percival,
“is to dissolve the partnership.”
“You’re going to buy me out—is that the
idea?”
“My dear boy, it’s the only sensible thing
to do, with our ideas so different.”
“If you find it hard to pay Elaine out her
legacy, how are you going to manage to pay
me my share?”
“Well, I didn’t mean in cash,” said
Percival. “We could—er—divide up the
holdings.”
“With you keeping the gilt-edged and me
taking the worst of the speculative off you, I
suppose?”
“They seem to be what you prefer,” said
Percival.
Lance grinned suddenly.
“You’re right in a way, Percy old boy. But
I can’t indulge my own taste entirely. I’ve got
Pat here to think of.”
Both men looked towards her. Pat opened
her mouth, then shut it again. Whatever
game Lance was playing, it was best that she
should not interfere. That Lance was driving
232
at something special, she was quite sure, but
she was still a little uncertain as to what his
actual object was.
“Line ’em up, Percy,” said Lance, laughing.
“Bogus Diamond Mines, Inaccessible
Rubies, the Oil Concessions where no oil is. Do you think I’m quite as big a fool as I
look?”
Percival said:
“Of course, some of these holdings are
highly speculative, but remember, they may turn out immensely valuable.”
“Changed your tune, haven’t you?” said
Lance, grinning. “Going to offer me father’s
latest wildcat acquisitions as well as the old
Blackbird Mine and things of that kind. By
the way, has the Inspector been asking you
about this Blackbird Mine?”
Percival frowned.
“Yes, he did. I can’t imagine what he
wanted to know about it. I couldn’t tell him much. You and I were children at the time. I
just remember vaguely that father went out
there and came back saying the whole thing
was no good.”
“What was it–a gold mine?”
“I believe so. Father came back pretty
certain that there was no gold there. And,
233
mind you, he wasn’t the sort of man to be
mistaken.”
“Who got him into it? A man called
MacKenzie, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. MacKenzie died out there.”
“MacKenzie died out there,” said Lance
thoughtfully. “Wasn’t there a terrific scene?
I seem to remember . . . Mrs. MacKenzie, wasn’t it? Came here. Ranted and stormed at