The five men consulted together in undertones, and in the end advanced their offer five thousand pounds. At this Tremlett only shook his shoulders. A further five thousand was the result, and a long discussion followed.
“Have you your cousin’s authority to accept terms?” asked one of the capitalists.
“I have.”
“Then forty thousand is all we can offer.”
Tremlett hesitated.
“I have a number of payments to make for bribery,” he declared. “It will take half that sum.”
“That does not concern us, my dear sir,” said the bald-headed banker. “We know that a concession such as this can only be obtained by the judicious application of palm-oil.”
“But I must pay out nearly twenty thousand almost immediately,” Tremlett said.
At this there was another long discussion, whereupon at last the bald-headed man said:
“If the payment of the bribes is imperative at once, we will, on consideration of the business being to-day concluded on a forty thousand pound basis, hand you over half the sum at once. That is our final decision.”