ng, is it? Things look pretty bad."

"They do indeed," said Sir William.

"It looks uncommonly like war with Germany," Pateley said; "prices are
tumbling down headlong on the Stock Exchange. I believe there is going
to be something very like a panic."

"Is there?" said Gore uneasily; "that's bad."

"Yes, it is very bad," Pateley went on. "I suppose you have heard that
there are ugly rumours about the 'Equator.'"

"I saw something," Sir William said, forcing himself to speak. "What is
it exactly that they say?"

"Well, the last thing they say," Pateley replied with a harder ring in
his voice, "is that it is not a gold mine at all."

"What?" said Sir William, grasping the arms of his chair.

"And that the whole thing, therefore, is going to pieces with every
penny invested in it."

"Is it--is it as bad as that?" said the other, tremulously. "No, no, it
can't be. Surely it can't be."

"Do you mean to say you don't know?" said Pateley.

"I know nothing," said Sir William. "I have heard nothing about it, up
to this moment."

"One can't help wondering," said Pateley, "that a man in your
responsible position towards it," the words struck Sir William like a
blow, "should not have known, should not have inquired----"

"I have been ill, you know," Sir William said nervously, "I have not
been able to look into or understand anything. I have not been out of
the house yet. I could not go to the City or do any business."

"Yes, I see that," said Pateley, "and I am sorry to be obliged to
thrust a business discussion upon you now----"

Sir William looked up at him quickly, anxiously.

"But the fact is, at this moment the business won't wait. If you
remember, when the 'Equator' Company was first started, I, like many
others, invested in it, having asked your opinion of it first, and
having heard from you that you were going to be the Chairman of the
Board of Directors."

"I believed in it, you know," Sir William said, with eagerness; "I put a
lot of money into it myself."

"I know you did, yes," said Pateley, "but _you_ fortunately had a lot to
do it with, and also a lot of money to keep out of it. Every one is not
so happily situated. I blame myself, I need not say, acutely, as well as
others." And as Sir William looked at him sitting there in his
relentless strength, he felt that there was small mercy to be expected
at his hands.

"I don't know," Sir William said, trying to speak with dignity, "that I
was to b