this," he said, looking up. "I'll make the promise for
thirty-two thousand, and I'll get you to let me have two thousand in
cash now--a personal advance. I shall need it, if I'm to hang about on
the Continent for four months. I judge you think it'll be four months
before things materialize, eh?"

"The Special Settlement, in the natural order of events, would come
shortly after the Christmas holidays. That is nearly three months. Then
the work of taking fort-nightly profits will begin--and it is for you to
say how long you allow that to go on."

"But about the two thousand pounds now," Thorpe reminded him.

"I think I will do that in this way," said Semple, kicking his small
legs nonchalantly. "I will buy two thousand fully-paid shares of you,
for cash down, NOT vendor's shares, you observe--and then I will take
your acknowledgment that you hold them for me in trust up to a given
date. In that way, I would not at all weaken your market, and I would
have a stake in the game." "Your stake's pretty big, already," commented
Thorpe, tentatively.

"It's just a fancy of mine," said the other, with his first smile. "I
like to hold shares that are making sensational advances. It is very
exciting."

"All right," said Thorpe, in accents of resignation. He wrote out two
letters, accepting the wording which Semple suggested from his perch on
the desk, and then the latter, hopping down, took the chair in turn and
wrote a cheque.

"Do you want it open?" he asked over his shoulder. "Are you going to get
it cashed at once?"

"No--cross it," said the other. "I want it to go through my bankers.
It'll warm their hearts toward me. I shan't be going till the end of the
week, in any event. I suppose you know the Continent by heart."

"On the contrary, very little indeed. I've had business in Frankfort
once, and in Rotterdam once, and in Paris twice. That is all."

"But don't you ever do anything for pleasure?" Thorpe asked him, as he
folded the cheque in his pocket-book.

"Oh yes--many things," responded the broker, lightly. "It's a pleasure,
for example, to buy Rubber Consols at par."

"Oh, if you call it buying," said Thorpe, and then softened his words
with an apologetic laugh. "I didn't tell you, did I? I've been spending
Saturday and Sunday with Plowden--you know, the Lord Plowden on my
Board."

"I know of him very well," observed the Scotchman.

"Has he a place that he asks people down to, then? That isn't the usual
for