not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen.'"

Thorpe, pondering this for a moment, nodded his head. "Semple," he said,
bringing his chair forward to the desk, "that's what I've come for. I
want to spread my cards on the table for you. I know the sum you've laid
out already, in working this thing. We'll say that that is to be paid
back to you, as a separate transaction, and we'll put that to one side.
Now then, leaving that out of consideration, what do you think you ought
to have out of the winnings, when we pull the thing off? Mind, I'm not
thinking of your 2,000 vendor's shares----"

"No--I'm not thinking much of them, either," interposed Semple, with a
kind of dry significance.

"Oh, they'll be all right," Thorpe affirmed. He laughed unconsciously as
he did so. "No, what I want to get at is your idea of what should come
to you, as a bonus, when I scoop the board."

"Twenty thousand pounds," said Semple, readily.

Thorpe's slow glance brightened a trifle. "I had thought thirty would be
a fairer figure," he remarked, with an effort at simplicity.

The broker put out his under-lip. "You will find people rather disposed
to distrust a man who promises more than he's asked," he remarked
coldly.

"Yes--I know what you mean," Thorpe hurried to say, flushing awkwardly,
even though the remark was so undeserved; "but it's in my nature. I'm
full of the notion of doing things for people that have done things
for me. That's the way I'm built. Why"--he halted to consider the
advisability of disclosing what he had promised to do for Lord Plowden,
and decided against it--"why, without you, what would the whole
thing have been worth to me? Take one thing alone--the money for the
applications--I could have no more got at it than I could at the Crown
Jewels in the Tower. I've wondered since, more than once--if you don't
mind the question--how did you happen to have so much ready money lying
about."

"There are some Glasgow and Aberdeen folk who trust me to invest for
them," the broker explained. "If they get five per cent. for the four
months, they'll be very pleased. And so I shall be very pleased to take
thirty thousand instead of twenty--if it presents itself to your mind in
that way. You will give me a letter to that effect, of course."

"Of course," assented Thorpe. "Write it now, if you like." He pushed his
chair forward, closer to the desk, and dipped a pen in the ink. "What
I want to do is