"Perfectly, but if you'd care to repeat it——"
Ezra P. Hipps rapped his free hand on a chair back.
"Don't get fresh," he snapped, "we're after business."
"Sorry," said Richard. "Thought it was a kind of Wild West act."
Evidently Van Diest wanted to avoid a row. He approached the subject in his most agreeable tone which sounded like a puma purring.
"Twendy per cent and a million pounds for der map. A man like you he can't spend a million pounds in a lifetime."
"Don't be too sure," said Richard unwisely. "I might have inherited the knack."
"Let's hear a price."
Richard turned to the American with a grin.
"Honestly," he replied, "anything you got from me would be dear at a shilling."