Brooke appeared a trifle astonished. "It is by no means finished, sir."
"Well," said Devine, drily, "I'm not quite sure it ever will be. The mine no longer belongs to me. It's part of the Dayspring Consolidated Mineral Properties. I've been working the thing up quietly for quite a while now, and I've a cable from London that the deal's put through."
Brooke, remembering what he had heard from Saxton, looked hard at him. "You have sold it out to English company promoters?"
"Not exactly! I'm taking so many thousand dollars down, and a controlling share of the stock. I'm also the boss director, with full power to run operations as appears advisable at the mines. How does the deal strike you?"
"Since you ask for my opinion, I fancy I should have preferred a good many dollars, and very little stock."
Devine glanced at him with a curious smile.
"You believe Allonby's a crank?"
"Other people do. On my part, I'm not quite sure of it. Still, it seems to me that the men who spend their money to prove him right will run a tolerably heavy risk, especially as, so far, at least, there appears to be no ore that's worth reduction in the mine, so far as it has been opened up."
"How do you know what is in the Dayspring?" and Devine looked at him steadily.
Brooke made a little gesture. "I don't think that point's important," he said. "You, no doubt, had a purpose in telling me as much as you have done?"