“I should write you a letter explaining the project I had to put before you.”
“Quite so. You wouldn’t go to the expense of cabling the whole thing, would you?”
“If the scheme was important enough I might go to that cost.”
The old gentleman held in his hand two or three cable messages which I had not seen, also a letter or two.
“Now, here is a man,” he said, “who has hit upon a plan I have often thought of myself. He has, he tells me, made a combination which possesses considerable strength, but in order to be impregnable he needs my co-operation. He cables the points very concisely, and puts his case with a good deal of power; but that cablegram is merely an advance agent for himself, expensive as it is. His object is to hold me at Yokohama until he can arrive. He actually crosses the continent to San Francisco, and takes the first steamer for Japan. I received his cablegram at Yokohama, but did not wait for him. I sent off a word or two myself to Chicago, asking confidential information which I have now received. Just before we left for Corea I got a telegram from this man in Yokohama, asking me to wait for him at Nagasaki, which I did not do, because I wished to impress on the energetic individual that I was not anxious to fall in with his plan, and I knew that, having come so far, he would not return without seeing me. Meanwhile I determined to find out whether his combination is as strong as he said it was, and this information is now in my possession. Also, I wished on my own account to make a combine so formidable that whether I gave my adherence to the one or the other my weight would tip the beam in favour of the one I joined. This combination also has been completed, and I hold the balance, of course. Our friend who has come over from Japan probably does not know that there is any opposition to his scheme, and no one in the world except yourself and myself and a man in Chicago knows I have anything to do with the other combine. You see I am just yachting for pleasure and for health, and am reluctant to touch business at all. At least, that is the information which I intend to be imparted to our friend, who is now impatiently awaiting me at the Nagasaki Hotel. You might think that I should invite him to come aboard my yacht and talk the matter over, or that I should go ashore and visit him, which he asks me to do; but I shall do neither. You see I want Mr. John C. Cammerford to realize that he is not nearly so important in the commercial affairs of America as he supposes himself to be.”
“John C. Cammerford!” I cried in amazement. “I think I have met him in New York, though it may not be the same man.”
“Well, the name is not a common one, and if you know him, all the better. I now instruct you to call on him first thing to-morrow morning. You will notice that I have trusted you fully in this matter by giving you information which must not leak through to Cammerford. You will tell him, however, that his combination is not the only one in the United States, and if I’m to join his he must prove to me that it is stronger than the opposition. He must give you a list of the firms he has combined, and he will have to show you the original documents pertaining to the options he has received. I want to know how long his options last. They will probably have at least six months’ life, or he could never have taken this journey to see me. If he satisfies you that his combination is genuine, and that his options have still several months to run, then I shall consent to meet him. If he cannot do this, or if he refuses to do it, I shall send a few cables which will certainly upset his apple-cart before he reaches San Francisco. You will not promise anything on my behalf, and I should have no objection if he imagines that my lack of eagerness in meeting him is caused by the fact that the other combination appears to me the stronger.”
“Would you mind my sending to him your card instead of my own? He might possibly refuse to meet me if I sent in the name of Tremorne.”
“That’s all right. Use my card if you wish. The main point is that you get as much information as possible, and give as little in return as may be. There’s the dinner gong, and I’m quite ready to meet whatever’s on the table. Come along.”