The new company did not pay dividends, but long before the first was due, Mr. Steppe had launched two others. On paper Dr. Merville made a fortune; actually, he acquired heavy liabilities, not the least of which was his heavy participation in a private flotation which Mr. Steppe, with unconscious humor, labeled: "The Investment Salvage Syndicate." It was a stockholding company and in the main it held such stock as a general public declined to purchase. There are rules of behavior which normal people do not transgress. A gentleman does not search the overcoat pockets of his fellow clubmen, and confiscate such valuables as he may find; nor does he steal into the houses of people he does not know and remove their silver. A corporation man has a less rigid code. Dr. Merville found himself consciously assisting in the manipulation of a stock, a manipulation which could only be intended to deprive stockholders of their legitimate rights. There was one unpleasant moment of doubt and shame when Merville sought to disentangle his individuality from this corporative existence. He tried to think singly, applying the tests which had governed his life--he found it easier to divide his responsibility. Somehow he felt less venal when only a fourteenth of the blame attached to him. This fraction represented his holding in Consolidated Deeps. Wealth is an effective narcotic. Rich and fearless men can find a melancholy pleasure in the contemplation of their past sins. But poverty and the danger of poverty acts as a microphone through the medium of which the still small voice of conscience is a savage roar. Beryl thought he was unusually nervous when she went to find him in his study. He started at the sound of her voice. "Ready--yes, dear. What time did Steppe say?" "Eight o'clock. We have plenty of time, father--the car isn't here yet. Do you know whether Ronnie will be there?" Dr. Merville was looking abstractedly at her; his mind, she knew, was very far away. "Ronnie? I don't know. John Maxton will be there. I saw him today. Steppe admires him and John is clever; he will be a judge one of these days. Yes--a judge." The little grimace he made was involuntary. "One would think you expected to meet him in his official capacity," she laughed. "Absurd of course--as to Ronnie? How do you feel about him, Beryl?" The maid tapped at the door to say the car had arrived. Beryl answered: "Do you mean--I don't quite know what you do mean?" "About the scandal. Do you remember a man who came to see you--why he should have come to you I don't know--with a story about his sister?" "East was the name. Yes, Ronnie told me all about it. The man is a blackmailer and his sister was not much better. Ronnie had shown a kindness to the girl, he met her at some--some mission or other. Ronnie does queer things like that--and he gave her some money to go on a holiday. That was all." "Humph--ready?"