Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/283

 your lordship was aware that money would be used for the destruction of Selwyn's Bank."

"Being so recently from the States, I'll answer your question by asking another. Do you take me to be a fool?"

"Well," hesitated Corbitt, as he thoughtfully scratched his smooth-shaven, masterful chin. "I don't suppose you're so big a fool as that transaction would indicate."

"I see. I'm merely a sort of mitigated idiot. Thanks, Corbitt. Still, I don't like fulsome eulogy."

"Do you know how much interest Mackeller is promising to pay you?"

"I do not. Mackeller's an old friend of mine, and I made no bargain with him."

"He says he will pay three per cent."

"Isn't that all right?"

"It is if you think so. But he decoyed away our customers by offering them six-and-a-half per cent.; a quite impossible figure. Say the bank-rate stands at what it does to-day, namely, four per cent. He lends out money at five per cent. How, then, can he pay his depositors six-and-a-half? His bank is on an unpractical basis, and must come a cropper."

"What do you wish me to do, Corbitt?"