m
fluttered to the ground.

"What's the matter?" asked Olive.

"Pneumonia. Dangerously ill."

"Poor little chap!"

"My only child!"

"He'll get over it, I'm sure."

"He's never been strong and hardy."

"Still, with the best doctors...."

"If money can pull him through, I'll pour it out like water. I'm off to
the States to look after those fool doctors. The 'Aurelia' is one of my
fastest boats, and she'll take me across in five days. I'll give treble
pay to every engineer and stoker."

"How long will you be away?"

"Can't say exactly."

"How unfortunate, just at this time!"

"I can finish off the Hudson Bay deal by wireless. My ordinary business
on this side will run on in the hands of Bates, Carew, and Grasemann,
who form my executive committee for London."

They had both ignored Matheson through this conversation. He was
squeezed dry and done with. Larssen had no further use for him at
present, and Olive had no sympathy to waste on a beaten man.

He had been sitting brokenly in a chair at the desk where he had signed
away his independence, gazing into a new-spilt ink-blot on the polished
surface of the desk, seeing visions in its glistening, blue-black pool.

But now he pushed back his chair with a rasping noise and rose
decisively to face Larssen.

"We'll call it a month's truce!" he flung out.

"What d'you mean?"

"For a month from now neither you nor I will move further in the Hudson
Bay scheme. For a month it'll be hung up."

"Who's to hang it up?"

"I."

"But I've got your signed approval in my pocket. Signed and witnessed!"

"The issue is not yet underwritten." It was a sheer guess, but in
Larssen's face Matheson could read that his guess was correct.

"Well?" snapped Larssen.

"Either you or I will tell the underwriters that the scheme goes no
further until a month from date--until May 3rd. Which is it to be--you
or I?"

Sylvester came in rapidly. "All your orders are being carried out, and
the car's on the way here from the garage."

For a few tense moments Larssen hesitated. The underwriting of the
five-million issue was an absolute essential to a successful flotation,
and the negotiations were not yet completed. If Matheson were to
interfere in them during his absence from London, big difficulties might
develop. Before that cablegram arrived, the shipowner could have beaten
down any such threat on Matheson's part, but now, with his little son
calling for his presence, with