"No, sir."
"I will ask him when he comes in."
Hal hesitated.
"I wish you would not, Mr. Sumner," he said.
The elderly broker looked surprised.
"Why not?"
"Because I think Mr. Hardwick is hatching up some plot against me, and I wish to find out what it is."
"A plot?"
"Yes, sir. He is on friendly terms with Dick Ferris, your former office-boy, and both of them hate me."
"This is certainly news. I knew Hardwick did not like you because you suspected him, but I thought that had passed over."