'Ah, yes,' said Von Brent; 'I am very sorry indeed you failed to form your company.'
'Failed!' echoed Kenyon.
'Yes; you haven't succeeded, have you?'
'Well, I don't know about that; we are in a fair way to succeed. You met Longworth and Melville, who came out to see the mine? I saw Longworth in New York, and he told me you had taken them out there.'
'Are they interested with you in the mine?'
'Certainly; they are helping me to form the company.'
Von Brent seemed amazed.
'I did not understand that at all. In fact, I understood the exact opposite. I thought you had attempted to form a company, and failed. They showed me an attack in one of the financial papers upon you, and said that killed your chances of forming a company in London. They were here, apparently, on their own business.'
'And what was their business?'
'To buy the mine.'