“I wish I had a few tons,” remarked Nick, with a dry laugh.
“To think that I have been bamboozled by that assistant of ours! I must call in those assay certificates and——”
“Do nothing of the kind, just yet,” cut in Nick.
“But are you aware of the position it places me in? Every assay certificate is vouched for by us the moment it is signed. And then, to have the hocus-pocus worked right in our own office—— But, by Jove, it was clever!”
“Certainly it was,” said Nick, “and Gillman was only a tool and not the leader in the swindling game. What I want to do is to get the whole gang. If you’ll lay back on your oars a little while, I shall succeed.”
“But to-morrow morning at ten o’clock a million dollars will be paid over to these swindlers for the Royal Ophir mine.”
“It won’t be paid over,” averred Nick.
“You assure me of that?”
“Yes. What I want you to do is to keep this to yourself. Don’t let Gillman suspect that you know what he has done. Keep him here until five o’clock and then let him go.”
“But my responsibility——”