Olaf's eyes brightened at the mention of the yacht. "Very well, Dad," he answered. "If you want me to, of course, I'll try and be nice to her."
"I'll send you down to Southampton Water with Dean, and from the yacht I want you to write a letter to Mrs Matheson. I'll give you the gist of what to say, and you'll put it in your own words."
"Are you going to marry Mrs Matheson, Dad?"
"Not if you don't like her after better acquaintance. I promise you that."
CHAPTER XXXII
THE NEW SCHEME
Larssen had spoken part truth when he told Olive over the tea-table that he had the glimmering of a plan in his mind. But its object was by no means what he had led her to believe. It was a scheme of an audacity in keeping with his previous impersonations of the "dead" Clifford Matheson, and its single objective was the attainment of his personal ambitions. Even his own son was to be used to help in the gaining of that one end.
The new scheme, in its essential, held the simplicity of genius. He would, single-handed, float the Hudson Bay company with Matheson's name at the head of the prospectus, whether Matheson assented or not.
The first move was to evade the spirit of his own written compact: "Until May 3rd, I fix up nothing with the underwriters." To get round this obstacle, he decided on the audacious plan of underwriting the entire issue himself. That is to say, he would give an absolute guarantee that if any portion of the five million pounds were not subscribed for by the general public, he himself would pay cash for and take up those shares. It was a huge risk. In the ordinary course of business no single finance house in London, the world's financial centre, would take on its shoulders the guaranteeing of a five million pound issue. Lars Larssen proposed to do it. In order to provide the requisite security, he would have to mortgage his ships and his private investments. He would be dicing with nine-tenths of his entire fortune.
The second move was to prevent interference, while the issue was being offered to the public, from those who knew anything of the inner history of the flotation—Matheson, Olive, Elaine, and Dean. Arthur Dean could easily be kept out of the way. Elaine would no doubt be still confined to the surgical home at Wiesbaden. Matheson and his wife were problems of much more difficulty. In whatever part of Europe Matheson might be, he would be certain to hear of the flotation. The point was to delay his knowledge of it for two or three days. After that, interference on his part could not undo what had been done. "One cannot unscramble an egg."