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"Mr. Torrington and all those peoples are very happy to believe that Barraclough hass given us the slip. S'no goot to make them miserable." "Still if without attracting attention " "You run along and play," said Hipps. And so the interview ended. Smith was heartily offended to be brushed aside in this fashion. He had served his employers faithfully and with sound intelligence.
No, he would work out this deal himself and if anything came of it approach Van Diest and Hipps for a lion's share of the plunder. Weeks ago it had been arranged; if by any means Barraclough succeeded in slipping through the outposts and obtaining the concession, he was to be quietly thugged on his return and the paper destroyed.
Hipps stood thinking for a moment. "I've half a mind to turn on the girl again. Let her vamp the secret out of him. We don't progress, you know. Say, you don't think they've a line on where we've got him hid?" Van Diest waved away the suggestion. "No, no, no. S'all right. S'arranged too well." "Then I'll trot up West and buy Auriole a lunch. What time tonight?" "At nine o'clock." "I'll be along."
Ten days earlier the Estuary had looked like a cinch and Nugent Cassis, who had a reputation for sanity, had been buying it by the yard. Here was stock at nineteen shillings being offered at fivepence, and no rush to take it up even at that price. Everyone knew that Hipps was the moving spirit in the Estuary. His holdings were enormous.
"And you feel kind of strong soft spots eradicated?" "Naturally." "I'm a hell of a tonic," said Ezra P. Hipps and closed the door behind him. Auriole stood where he had left her. Presently she raised her hands and they were clenched so tightly that the knuckles were white as ivory. "How utterly, utterly awful," she said to herself. "How unspeakable."
The oil market, particularly that controlled by Hugo Van Diest, had slumped fifteen points in three days and the others had fallen sympathetically. And now, as though the oil collapse were not enough, appeared Ezra P. Hipps unloading Estuary Rails at a price that would hardly pay for printing the scrip.
For a moment Hipps made no reply and when at last he spoke his remark appeared to have no bearing on the matter in hand. "In France during the war?" he asked. "I was." "Awkward stuff, that poison gas." "Very awkward." "Beastly smell." "Horrid." "Makes me cry to think of it." "But you're a born sentimentalist." "Ah. Goodnight. Shan't be meeting again for a few days.
"He may have failed to get the concession. If that were so you'd have an equal chance. Will you call them off if I give you that?" "But you can't, my dear," said Torrington gently. "And even if you could, you mustn't," snapped Cassis. "Mustn't!" There was something magnificent in her scorn. "Why I'd wreck the whole crowd of you for one sight of him. Here you " and she swung round on Ezra Hipps.
As Ezra Hipps had said, "If we fail to get it for ourselves it's damn sure no one else is going to profit." Wherefore all he had to do was to intercept the returning treasure seeker, put him securely away and then talk business to his own employers. Harrison Smith hailed a taxi and told the driver to go down the Commercial Road as far as the Poplar Town Hall.
That train goes at ten tomorrow morning." Ezra P. Hipps happened to see the light in Auriole's eyes as he and Van Diest moved toward the door. It was quite unmistakable and from his point of view, conclusive. He said nothing, however, and they passed out in silence.
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