“Well, Mr. Mackeller, that is just the question I have been asking myself. I suppose I rather took to him, and in spite of my determination not to, I became interested in the story he told me. I think your seven syndicate men must be rather exceptional, are they not?”
“No. I am exceptional in allowing myself to be caught like a schoolboy.”
“I am quite unversed in the ways of the city, Mr. Mackeller, and I should like to know the modus operandi of a case like this. Are your seven men personally selling their stock?”
“How do you mean personally? They don’t go on the market and trade, of course.”
“Then they must employ some one else?”
“Oh, they are employing a score of brokers, all offering the shares with no takers.”
“Do you know these brokers, Mr. Mackeller?”
“Every man jack of them.”
“Are they enemies of yours?”
“There is neither enmity nor friendship in the city, Lord Stranleigh.”