ws. He wanted time to think
over it. He sent off two or three wires to labor agents and one
to a Native Commissioner.

He must have boys at any cost, and quickly, to develop certain
properties. He

"... turned an easy wheel
That set sharp racks at work, to pinch and peel."

Then he interviewed an agent in an office, and did some very
delicate work indeed in the drafting of a prospectus. He had
earned a drink by then. His brain interested him he was inclined
to self-analysis of a sort its chiaroscuro of limelight effects
and faint nuances indicated rather than expressed. It was good to
be alive to-day, and to pull as many strings as he was pulling.

He did not stop at one drink; over the second, the expert made a
proposition to him. It dazzled him, but he would not give an
answer just then. To-morrow morning would do.

After that he lunched at the Club with Sir Charles Guestling who
was just back from England, and had brought a younger brother out
with him to see the country. It would have been a pleasanter
lunch without that brother, Julian thought at the time. The
brother said nothing offensive, indeed he hardly opened his
mouth, but his eyes embarrassed Julian strangely. He had curious
blue-grey eyes that contrasted with his black hair, and he would
fix Julian with these eyes just as he and Sir Charles were deep
in shares and options and the scarcity of labor. Perhaps it was
that Julian was overwrought with anxieties of success. The eyes
seemed to him clairvoyant, he imagined that they saw more than
they ought to see, when they looked him over, as he made some
highly technical statement. It was extraordinary that a
conventional man about town like Sir Charles should have such a
brother.

After lunch Julian relaxed.

He gave himself the indulgence of a call on Mrs. Puce.

He had put her husband on to a good thing or two a year ago now.
They had been great friends, he and the wife.

To-day he was a little anxious as to how she would receive him.
Things had altered since they last met. 'He had got engaged a
business-like engagement.

But she was very gracious in her welcome. Moreover she was more
decorous this afternoon than he remembered her a few months back.
He told her about his contemplated coup.

'I'll consult planchette for you,' said she. 'Yes, and I'll let
you know to-night.'

She was a pretty woman with rather too high a color. But she grew
pale enough now.

'I forgot, though, it's against