“That’s tough. I’ve got just a haf hour.”
“It was ten minutes last and five before,” laughed the intrigued banker.
“Well, let’s get down to bed rock. I can set you haf-a-dozen questions, and we’ll fix it that way.”
“Have you made a ‘strike’?”
McLagan laughed.
“No, siree! But I’m going to set the questions to this examination.”
“I may sit.”
The banker’s eyes were shining with the humour of the thing. But he was wondering, too. He had never known McLagan to have more than a passing interest in the trade he dealt in. And somehow, he now seemed to be in deadly earnest for all his lightness.
“Sure you may,” the oil man said. “And smoke, too, if you feel that way. It’s good to smoke if you need to think.”