'Do you know that he stole the reports, and that they were taken from him before he could use them?'
'Yes.'
'Do you know he offered Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Wentworth double the price the London Syndicate would have paid them, on condition they gave him a synopsis of the reports?'
'Yes, I know that also.'
'Do you know that, in doing what he asked, they would not have been keeping back for a single day the real report from the people who engaged them? You know all that, do you?'
'Yes; I know all that.'
'Very well, then. Now you ask me to do very much more than Rivers asked them, because you ask me to keep my paper completely in the dark about the information I have got. Isn't that so?'
'Yes, you can keep them in the dark until after the report has been given to the directors; then, of course, you can do what you please with the information.'
'Ah, but by that time it will be of no value. By that time it will have been published in the London financial papers. At that time anybody can get it. Isn't that the case?'
'I suppose so.'