tention of using my name in the Hudson Bay
prospectus as though I had given you sanction for it."

"You did give me sanction."

"Written?"

"No; your word."

"When?"

"At our last interview at your Paris office. You passed your word--an
Englishman's word--and I took it."

Matheson ignored the cool lie. "Let's get down to business," he said.

"With pleasure. What do you want?"

"When we last met," continued Matheson slowly, "I wanted you to assign
half of your four million Deferred Shares to Lord ----, to be held in
trust for the general body of shareholders. Well, now--_now_--I want the
whole four million assigned."

"And you propose that I should give them up for nothing?" queried
Larssen ironically.

"For L200,000 in ordinary shares. The monetary value is the same. The
difference would be that you'll have two hundred thousand with your own
money, not the British public's."

There was silence while the two men eyed one another relentlessly. At
the side of Larssen's forehead, under the temple, a tiny vein throbbed
and jerked. That was the only outward sign of the feelings of murder
which lay in his heart.

"You have your nerve!" he commented.

"I'm offering you easy terms."

"Offer _me_ terms!"

"Easy terms," repeated Matheson. "I could, if I chose, step from here to
my lawyers' and have you indicted for conspiracy. I could get you seven
to ten years. I could have you breaking stones at Portland."

"Then why don't you?"

"I have my private reasons."

"One of them being that you haven't a shred of evidence," was the cool
reply.

"Who sends cables in my name to my managers?" demanded Matheson.

"I know nothing of that."

"You _do_ know it. One of your employees sends them."

"Have you such a cable with you?"

Matheson ignored the retort. "You've told my wife and my father-in-law
that I was alive."

"I knew you _were_ alive. Is that your idea of fraud?"

"I'm not going to quibble over words. Believing me to be dead, you had
me impersonated, planning to use my name on the Hudson Bay scheme."

"I've not used your name."

"You used it to induce St Aubyn and Carleton-Wingate to come on the
Board."

"If you're thinking to prove that, you merely waste your time. The
negotiations were carried out by your father-in-law."

"You used my name to a reporter on the _Europe Chronicle_."

"Have you written evidence of that?"

"Martin will swear to it, if necessary."

Larssen laughed harshly. "