“Tell me your whole story first and then I will answer you.”
“I will be as brief as I can,” said Lansing.
“My parents are dead, and my sister Louise and I live with our uncle, Horace Montgomery, on West Forty-fourth Street.
“Mr. Montgomery is our guardian, and is the trustee of certain funds which were left to us.
“Between us, Louise and I have some five hundred thousand dollars on interest with a trust company.
“This man Yasmar came from the West, a month or more ago, and has interested my uncle and some Boston men in a Montana mine which he calls the Royal Ophir.
“Mr. Montgomery, in spite of my objections, is determined to invest this five hundred thousand in Yasmar’s mine, but I am sure that the whole thing is a swindle from start to finish.”
“How long have you felt sure that Yasmar was a swindler?” interposed Nick.
“I have had a feeling that he was crooked ever since my uncle first introduced him to me.”
“Just a ‘feeling.’ No other evidence prior to what happened on the Sound steamer Monday night?”