“I take it that we are talking with a definite view to business?” he said.
The barrister hesitated. Even in the detection of a crime a man does not care to tell a deliberate lie, and Dodge’s attitude so far had been candid enough. The Springbok Mine honestly looked to be a good speculative investment, so he resolved to place the proposition before one or two friends who dealt with similar matters, and who were fully able to look after their own interests.
“Yes,” he answered, “I am here for that purpose. If my principals like this thing they will go in for it.”
“Then here is the vendors’ list,” said Mr. Dodge, taking a foolscap sheet from a drawer.
Claude perused it nonchalantly. His quick eyes took in each name and address out of half-a-dozen, and rejected all as being in no way connected with the man whose antecedents he was seeking.
Yet, where possible, he left nothing to chance.
“Have you any objection to a copy being made?” he asked.
Mr. Dodge hummed doubtfully.
“You see,” went on the barrister, “it is best to be quite candid with people whom you wish to bring into risky if apparently high promising ventures. I presume these gentlemen are moneyless. If so, it is a factor in favor of your scheme. Should any of them be men of means, my principals would naturally ask why they did not themselves underwrite the shares.”