Page:Barr--Stranleighs millions.djvu/31

Rh "Now, tell me how you come here on behalf of Bendale."

"I do not come here on behalf of Bendale, but rather on behalf of his friends."

"Oh, he's got friends, has he?"

"Yes."

"Men with money?"

"Yes, some of them possess a bit of money."

"Then why don't they help him? He's a bankrupt now, if he only knew it."

"They are trying to help him, Mr. Brassard, and I come, if I may say so, as their spokesman."

"What have you to propose?"

"You are willing to give a thousand pounds for the business?" "I did offer that, but he was fool enough not to take it. The price now is seven hundred and fifty pounds."

"But the business was worth five thousand before your competition began?"

"That has nothing to do with the question, and you may tell his friends that this tender of seven hundred and fifty will remain open but a very few days longer. I am quite well acquainted with the position of Bendale's affairs. I shall buy that business at my own price before many weeks are past."

"But to an alert business man like yourself, Mr. Brassard, time is money."

"Yes."