"I wonder—" the stout solicitor muttered. "It might interest you to—Two heads are better than one, and—Some sort of partnership—"
"I can only spare you five minutes more," said Slyne crisply. "As soon as I've finished my cigar, I'm going across to Ciro's for supper. The Marquis of Ingoldsby is expecting me."
"Do you know his lordship?" breathed Mr. Jobling, his new-born hope no doubt gaining strength and his respect for his chance companion obviously increased. "Then you'll understand me when I tell you that I've ruined myself—ab-so-lutely ruined myself over the Jura succession."
"I haven't the least idea what the devil you're talking about," said Slyne.
Mr. Jobling groaned again. He was most grievously disappointed.
"I thought every one had heard of the case," he went on. "A couple of millions in cash—"
"Millions of what?" demanded Slyne with a little more lively interest.
"Pounds sterling," the London lawyer explained, rather testily. "A couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year going a-begging may not seem a very important matter to a moneyed man like you, but I've thought of nothing else, night and day, for the past five years, and—"
"I've been all over the world for the past five years," mentioned Slyne loftily, but impatient now, "and the latest news of the parish pump has probably failed to reach me. Get on with your story, anyhow. If there's anything in it—I don't know but that I may be disposed to lend you a hand—if there's anything in it." And, having lighted a fresh cigar, he composed himself to listen. His time was his own. The chance of catching Lord Ingoldsby alone at Ciro's was too remote to be worth more than the passing thought. A story with so much money in it might prove at least as entertaining as a solitary supper.
Mr. Jobling gazed with glistening eyes at his providential acquaintance. "I've told you what there is in it," said he in a tremulous tone. "A couple of millions in cash and forty or fifty thousand a year that will all ultimately fall to the Crown—unless I can find that girl, or—"