Without at all understanding Captain Hallam's purpose, Duncan went upon this mission, returning presently with the information that in one way and another the Hallam bank controlled forty-eight shares of the X National's stock--or three shares less than a majority of the whole. He brought also the message from Stafford that as Tandy himself controlled the remaining fifty-two shares it would probably be impossible at present to buy any more. "I don't know so well about that," said Hallam reflectively. "I've managed in my time to get a good many impossible things done. I'm not a very firm believer in the impossible." Then suddenly he turned to Duncan and fired a question at him: "Have you a friend anywhere whom you can trust--one not known in Cairo?" "Yes, one." "You are sure you can trust him?" "Yes, absolutely." "You wouldn't hesitate to put a pile of money into his hands without a scrap of paper to show that the money was yours, not his?" "I would trust him as absolutely as I would trust you, or you me." "All right, who is he?" "Dick Temple--the mining engineer and superintendent." "Telegraph him at once. Ask him to come down on the evening train. Tell him to say nothing about knowing you or me, but to come to your rooms this evening. I'll see him there." Duncan took up a pad of telegraph blanks and a pencil. He had scarcely begun to write when Hallam stopped him. "Never do that," he exclaimed. "Never write a message on a pad, especially with a pencil." "But why not?" "See!" answered Hallam, tearing off the blank on which Duncan had begun to write, and directing attention to the blank that lay beneath. "The impression made by the pencil on the under sheet is as legible as the writing above. It would be awkward if Tandy should pick up that pad and find out what you had telegraphed. Always tear the top blank off the pad and lay it on the desk before you write on it." "Thank you! That's another of your wise precepts. I wonder I didn't think of it before." "Oh, hardly anybody ever does think of such things, but they make trouble." That night Hallam, Duncan, and Temple met in Duncan's rooms. Hallam promptly took possession by requesting Duncan to "go away somewhere, while I explain matters to Temple." When Duncan had taken his leave Hallam plunged at once into the heart of things. "Duncan tells me you're his friend--one who will stand by him?" "I am all that, you may be sure, Captain Hallam." "Very good. Now is the time to show yourself such. Duncan has got himself into something worse than a hole, and his whole career, to say nothing of his honorable reputation, is in danger. You and I can save him." "Would you mind telling me the exact situation? Not that I need to know it in order to do anything you think would be helpful, but if I fully understand the matter, I shall know better what to do in any little emergency that may come about."