'Oh, London! I don't believe the book-keepers there are half so sharp as ours. If you had to deal with American accountants, you would not find out so easily what they had or had not done.' 'Well, Miss Brewster, I may say I have just had an experience of that kind with some of your very sharpest American book-keepers. I found that the books had been kept in the most ingenious way with the intent to deceive. The system had been going on for years.' 'How interesting! And did you call in a policeman?' 'No. This was one of the cases where a policeman was not necessary. The books were kept with the object of showing that the profits of the m--of the business--had been much greater than they really were. I may say that one of your American accountants had already looked over the books, and, whether through ignorance or carelessness, or from a worse motive, he reported them all right. They were not all right, and the fact that they were not, will mean the loss of a fortune to some people on your side of the water, and the saving of good money to others on my side.' 'Then I think your profession must be a very important one.' 'We think so, Miss Brewster. I would like to be paid a percentage on the money saved because of my report.' 'And won't you?' 'Unfortunately, no.' 'I think that is too bad. I suppose the discrepancy must have been small, or the American accountant would not have overlooked it?' 'I didn't say he overlooked it. Still, the size of a discrepancy does not make any difference. A small error is as easily found as a large one. This one was large. I suppose there is no harm in my saying that the books, taking them together, showed a profit of forty thousand pounds, when they should have shown a loss of nearly half that amount. I hope nobody overhears me.' 'No; we are quite alone, and you may be sure I will not breathe a word of what you have been telling me.' 'Don't breathe it to Kenyon, at least. He would think me insane if he knew what I have said.' 'Is Mr. Kenyon an accountant, too?' 'Oh no. He is a mineralogist. He can go into a mine, and tell with reasonable certainty whether it will pay the working or not. Of course, as he says himself, any man can see six feet into the earth as well as he can. But it is not every man that can gauge the value of a working mine so well as John Kenyon.' 'Then, while you were delving among the figures, your companion was delving among the minerals?' 'Precisely.' 'And did he make any such startling discovery as you did?' 'No; rather the other way. He finds the mines very good properties, and he thinks that if they were managed intelligently they would be good paying investments--that is, at a proper price, you know--not at what the owners ask for them at present. But you can have no possible interest in these dry details.' 'Indeed, you are mistaken. I think what you have told me intensely interesting.'