“But for such a formidable speculation foreign agents will require security?”
“I will offer it to them. I have here ten million francs’ worth of shares in the European Credit belonging to Cayrol. We will give the cashier a joint receipt for them. The speculation will last three days. It is safe, and when the result is achieved we will replace the shares, and take back the receipt.”
“But,” asked Serge, “is this plan of taking the shares which don’t belong to us legal?”
“It is a transfer,” said Herzog, with simplicity. “Besides, don’t forget that we have to do with Cayrol, that is to say with a partner.”
“Suppose we tell him of it,” insisted the Prince.
“No! The deuce! We should have to explain everything to him. He knows what’s what, and would find the idea too good, and want a share of the spoil. No! Sign that, and don’t be alarmed. The sheep will be back in the fold before the shepherd comes to count them.”
A dark presentiment crossed Serge’s mind, and he was afraid. At that moment, when his fate was being decided, he hesitated to go deeper into the rut where he had already been walking too long. He stood silent and undecided. Confused thoughts crowded his brain; his temples throbbed, and a buzzing noise sounded in his ears. But the thought of giving up his liberty, and again subjecting himself to Madame Desvarennes’s protection was like the lash of a whip, and he blushed for having hesitated.
Herzog looked at him, and, smiling in a constrained way, said:
“You, too, may give up the affair if you like. If I share it with you it is because you are so closely allied to me. I don’t so very much care to cut the pear in two. Don’t think that I am begging of you to be my partner! Do as you like.”
Serge caught hold of the paper and, having signed it, handed it to the financier.