Deringham bent his head. "Yes. To a moderate extent."
Hallam sat silent for a time, and then looked up with a glint in his beady eyes. "It could be done. Well, I don't want him to find that silver, and if he doesn't get through his prospecting in the next month or so he'll not find much of anything under six feet of snow, and I'll have fixed things up as I want them before it's melted. Now you're holding pretty heavy in the Aconada mine, and I've been wanting to get my foot in there for a long while."
Deringham stood up, and thrust aside the bottle Hallam passed him. "Before we go any further I want you to understand that if Alton is held up there until December is over it is all I ask," he said.
Hallam nodded. "Oh, yes," he said. "All I want is so many of those shares transferred to me."
They debated for a while, and then Deringham said, "I would sooner fix it through a third party."
Hallam laughed unpleasantly. "That would suit, but I'd want your cheque to buy them with made out payable to me."
"It would," said Deringham, "not suit me."
"Then we can't make a deal. It's me that's putting this thing through, and if anything goes wrong I'm anxious to have somebody to stand in with me as well as pick up the dollars if it doesn't. I'm talking quite straight. There it is. Take it or leave it."
Deringham was silent again. Then he laughed a little. "Since I cannot apparently do anything else, I'll take it."
Hallam filled up both glasses. "Then that's all," he said. "Here's my respects to the Somasco Consolidated."