"The story of your persistent ill-fortune has interested me. But I find it difficult to believe in the consistency of bad luck; it must change sooner or later."
"Not for me," answered the young man, with quick conviction.
"I have a fancy to put that to the test. Take this card to my brokers—you know them, Sandford & Sands, of New Street. I have instructed them to place at your disposal a credit of one hundred thousand dollars. You will be at their office to-morrow morning, and at precisely ten o'clock you will receive from me a sealed communication containing certain information upon which you can rely absolutely. Use your credit according to your best judgment, and report the results to me at eight o'clock to-morrow evening. The address is on the card, and you will dine with me."
"I thank you," said the young man, simply. "If such a thing were possible—" He stopped and shook his head.
"Nonsense!" said Indiman, bluffly. "You must believe in yourself, man; it is the first requisite for success. To-morrow evening at eight, then."
Sitting over a final cigar in Indiman's library, he made me a sharer in the mystery. "It is simply that the canal treaty will be reported unfavorably to-morrow by the committee, and consequently it will fail to pass the Senate. How do I know? I heard it from Senator Morrison's own lips."
"Well?"
"As you know, the dining-hall of the Utinam Club is of a circular shape, and it happens to possess certain peculiar acoustic properties. In other words, it is a whispering-gallery, and it so chanced that Senator Morrison sat at one of the definite points—they call them vocal foci, I think—and I at the other. That is the whole story."
"You are quite sure—there can be no mistake?"
"Not the slightest doubt. The man with Morrison is a broker, and he has the Senator's order to sell ten thousand Panama common at the market to-morrow. When the news of the treaty's failure to pass reaches Wall Street, by the regular channels, the stock will break sharply and the profits on the deal should be enormous. No wonder that Senator Morrison's flying trip to New York should be worth the taking."