Page:Barr--Stranleighs millions.djvu/95

Rh "Oh, I'm not in the crushing business. I believe in conciliation. Flannigan and I will compromise; we'll show our hands, and then join them. I am going on the basis that Flannigan is a man of sense. I daresay he fully intends to wave aside Mr. Sarsfield-Mitcham, and in that he rather has my sympathy. If I were certain that he would compensate the inventor properly, I don't think I'd interfere; but I rather suspect he intends to throw the poor wretch into the human scrap-heap with as little compunction as he'd break up an obsolete locomotive. That I shall endeavour to prevent—not from any goodness of heart at all, but merely because my friend Mackeller is interested in the old gentleman's daughter."

"Then you will join me?"

"Oh, yes, as certainly as Miss Sarsfield-Mitcham will do the same when you ask her; but I must proceed in my own way. You may tell the girl that you have persuaded me to cross with you in the Adriatic. Encourage her to remain in England on an apparently futile search for capital. If Flannigan has set spies on her track, for heaven's sake let's provide those peripatetic men with something to do. Besides, I should prefer that the Atlantic rolled between the young woman and myself while I am carrying out my felonious designs. Now, do you give me a free hand, or do you not?"