“I don’t know whether you know anything about the Welcome Diamond Mining Company?” he said. “Probably not. It was floated about this time last year, and the greater part of the business came into my hands. The shares were taken up all right, but—well, it didn’t come to anything, and its affairs had something to do with my going out to the Cape. It was in connection with those same affairs that I and Ramsay met.”
Julian had listened so far with a clouded countenance, and now, as Loring paused, he leant back in his chair with a movement of irrepressible disappointment.
“Oh!” he said shortly. “It’s a mine, then?”
“There is a mine in connection with it,” replied Loring imperturbably. “But you need not trouble yourself about the mine. That is only the figure-head, you understand. The affair itself is a matter of—arrangement. Look here, Romayne,” he went on, as Julian leant suddenly forward across the table, “shares in the Welcome Diamond Mining Company are at this moment worth about five shillings each.”
He paused. He had been leaning carelessly back in his chair, and now he moved, uncrossing his legs, and leaning one arm on the table.
“In a few days,” he went on deliberately and significantly, “they will fall to two shillings.” He paused again, with a slight, matter-of-course gesture. “That will be worked, of course,” he said.
Julian nodded comprehension.
“Yes?” he said.
“At that price,” continued Loring, “all the shares will be bought up by two or three men, in consequence of private information received from the Cape.”
The last words came from Loring slowly and deliberately, and his eyes met Julian’s significantly. A quick flash of understanding passed across Julian’s face, and Loring continued easily: