pluck. A man who has done what he has by financing in Europe,--by
George! there's no limit to what he might do with us. We're a bigger
people than any of you and have more room. We go after bigger things,
and don't stand shilly-shally on the brink as you do. But Melmotte
pretty nigh beats the best among us. Anyway he should come and try his
luck, and he couldn't have a bigger thing or a safer thing than this.
He'd see it immediately if I could talk to him for half an hour.'

'Mr Fisker,' said Paul mysteriously, 'as we are partners, I think I
ought to let you know that many people speak very badly of Mr
Melmotte's honesty.'

Mr Fisker smiled gently, turned his cigar twice round in his mouth,
and then closed one eye. 'There is always a want of charity,' he
said, 'when a man is successful.'

The scheme in question was the grand proposal for a South Central
Pacific and Mexican railway, which was to run from the Salt Lake City,
thus branching off from the San Francisco and Chicago line,--and pass
down through the fertile lands of New Mexico and Arizona into the
territory of the Mexican Republic, run by the city of Mexico, and
come out on the gulf at the port of Vera Cruz. Mr Fisker admitted at
once that it was a great undertaking, acknowledged that the distance
might be perhaps something over 2000 miles, acknowledged that no
computation had or perhaps could be made as to the probable cost of
the railway; but seemed to think that questions such as these were
beside the mark and childish. Melmotte, if he would go into the matter
at all, would ask no such questions.

But we must go back a little. Paul Montague had received a telegram
from his partner, Hamilton K. Fisker, sent on shore at Queenstown from
one of the New York liners, requesting him to meet Fisker at Liverpool
immediately. With this request he had felt himself bound to comply.
Personally he had disliked Fisker,--and perhaps not the less so because
when in California he had never found himself able to resist the man's
good humour, audacity, and cleverness combined. He had found himself
talked into agreeing with any project which Mr Fisker might have in
hand. It was altogether against the grain with him, and yet by his own
consent, that the flour-mill had been opened at Fiskerville. He
trembled for his money and never wished to see Fisker again; but
still, when Fisker came to England, he was proud to remember that
Fisker was his partner, and he obeyed the order a