d not, however, to facilitate
conversation. The nobleman looked at the pattern of the sock on the
ankle he was nursing, and knitted his brows in perplexity. "What if the
Committee of the Stock Exchange decide to interfere?" he asked at last.

"Oh, that would knock me sky-high," Thorpe admitted.

"Approximately, how much may one take 'sky-high' to mean?"

Thorpe appeared to calculate. "Almost anything up to a quarter of a
million," he answered.

"Hah!" said Lord Plowden again. "Well--I understand--I'm given to
understand--that very likely that is what the Committee will decide."

"Does it say that in the papers?" asked Thorpe. He essayed an effect of
concern. "Where did you see that?"

"I didn't see it," the other explained. "It--it came to me."

"God!" said Thorpe. "That'll be awful! But are you really in earnest? Is
that what you hear? And does it come at all straight?"

Lord Plowden nodded portentously. "Absolutely straight," he said, with
gravity.

Thorpe, after a momentary stare of what looked like bewilderment,
was seen to clutch at a straw. "But what was it you were saying?" he
demanded, with eagerness. "You talked about help--a minute ago. Did you
mean it? Have you got a plan? Is there something that you can do?"

Plowden weighed his words. "It would be necessary to have a very
complete understanding," he remarked.

"Whatever you like," exclaimed the other.

"Pardon me--it would have to be a good deal more definite than that,"
Plowden declared. "A 'burnt child'--you know."

The big man tapped musingly with his finger-nails on the desk. "We won't
quarrel about that," he said. "But what I'd like to know first,--you
needn't give anything away that you don't want to,--but what's your
plan? You say that they've got me in a hole, and that you can get me
out." "In effect--yes."

"But how do you know that I can't get myself out? What do you know about
the whole thing anyway? Supposing I tell you that I laugh at it--that
there's no more ground for raising the suspicion of fraud than there is
for--for suspecting that you've got wings and can fly."

"I--I don't think you'll tell me that," said Plowden, placidly.

"Well then, supposing I don't tell you that," the other resumed,
argumentatively. "Supposing I say instead that it can't be proved. If
the Committee doesn't have proof NOW,--within twenty-one or twenty-two
hours,--they can't do anything at all. Tomorrow is settling day. All
along, I've said I wou