The Yellow God | Page 8

it out."

"It seems, Mr. Jackson, that /The Judge/ has refused not only our article,
but also the advertisement of the company. I don't know much about
this side of the affair myself, but Sir Robert asked me if I would come
round and see if things couldn't be arranged."
"You mean that the man sent you to try and work on me because he
knew that I used to be intimate with your family. Well, it is a poor
errand and will have a poor end. You can't--no one on earth can, while I
sit in this chair, not even my proprietors."
There was silence broken at last by Alan, who remarked awkwardly:
"If that is so, I must not take up your time any longer."
"I said that I would give you a quarter of an hour, and you have only
been here four minutes. Now, Alan Vernon, tell me as your father's old
friend, why you have gone to herd with these gilded swine?"
There was something so earnest about the man's question that it did not
even occur to his visitor to resent its roughness.
"Of course it is not original," he answered, "but I had this idea about
flooding the Desert; I spent a furlough up there a few years ago and
employed my time in making some rough surveys. Then I was obliged
to leave the Service and went down to Yarleys after my father's death
--it's mine now, you know, but worth nothing except a shooting rent,
which just pays for the repairs. There I met Champers-Haswell, who
lives near and is a kind of distant cousin of mine--my mother was a
Champers--and happened to mention the thing to him. He took it up at
once and introduced me to Aylward, and the end of it was, that they
offered me a partnership with a small share in the business, because
they said I was just the man they wanted."
"Just the man they wanted," repeated the editor after him. "Yes, the last
of the Vernons, an engineer with an old name in his county, a clean
record and plenty of ability. Yes, you would be just the man they
wanted. And you accepted?"

"Yes. I was on my beam ends with nothing to do; I wanted to make
some money. You see Yarleys has been in the family for over five
hundred years, and it seemed hard to have to sell it. Also--also----" and
he paused.
"Ever meet Barbara Champers?" asked Mr. Jackson inconsequently. "I
did once. Wonderfully nice girl, and very good-looking too. But of
course you know her, and she is her uncle's ward, and their place isn't
far off Yarleys, you say. Must be a connection of yours also."
Major Vernon started a little at the name and his face seemed to redden.
"Yes," he said, "I have met her and she is a connection."
"Will be a big heiress one day, I think," went on Mr. Jackson, "unless
old Haswell makes off with her money. I think Aylward knows that; at
any rate he was hanging about when I saw her."
Vernon started again, this time very perceptibly.
"Very natural--your going into the business, I mean, under all the
circumstances," went on Mr. Jackson. "But now, if you will take my
advice, you'll go out of it as soon as you can."
"Why?"
"Because, Alan Vernon, I am sure you don't want to see your name
dragged in the dirt, any more than I do." He fumbled in a drawer and
produced a typewritten document. "Take that," he said, "and study it at
your leisure. It's a sketch of the financial career of Messrs. Aylward and
Champers-Haswell, also of the companies which they have promoted
and been connected with, and what has happened to them and to those
who invested in them. A man got it out for me yesterday and I'm going
to use it. As regards this Sahara business, you think it all right, and so it
may be from an engineering point of view, but you will never live to
sail upon that sea which the British public is going to be asked to find
so many millions to make. Look here. We have only three minutes
more, so I will come to the point at once. It's Turkish territory, isn't it,

and putting aside everything else, the security for the whole thing is a
Firman from the Sultan?"
"Yes, Sir Robert Aylward and Haswell procured it in Constantinople. I
have seen the document."
"Indeed, and are you well acquainted with the Sultan's signature? I
know when they were there last autumn that potentate was very ill----"
"You mean----" said Major Vernon, looking up.
"I mean, Alan, that I like not the security. I won't say any more,