"Well, as I say, we've got to have money, a whole lot of it, or there's no telling when Madeleine and I will ever be married. And the Portage Company has got to have money; they have struck bottom so far as their finances go and can't go on without help. God knows I've worked hard enough over it--been doing nothing else for weeks." "What do you float?" Adam was prepared to give him his best attention. "One million refunding bonds--half to take up the old issue and the balance for improvements. Our wedding comes in the 'improvements,'" and Philip winked meaningly. "Is there enough copper in the mine to warrant the issue?" Adam asked, recalling Madeleine's remark about the deeper they went the less copper there was in the mine. "What's that got to do with it?" "Everything, I should think. You examined it--didn't you?--and should know." "Yes, but nobody has asked me for an opinion. The company's engineer attends to that." "What do you think yourself, Phil?" "I don't think. I'm not paid to think. The other fellow does the thinking and I do the selling." "What does Mr. Eggleston say?" "He doesn't say. He isn't paid for saying. What he wants is his six per cent, and that's what we've got to earn. This new deal earns it." "Does the trust company know anything about the mine?" "Why, of course, everything. Those fellows don't need a guardian. They've got the mining engineer's sworn certificate, and they trust to that and----" "And to the standing of your house," Adam interrupted. "Certainly. Why not? That's what we're in business for." "But what do you think of it--you, remember; you--Philip Colton--are you willing to swear that the mine is worth the money the trust company will lend on it?" "I make an affidavit! Not much! What I _say_ is everybody's property; what I _think_ is nobody's business but my own. The mine _may_ strike virgin copper in chunks and it may not. That's where the gamble comes in. If it does the bonus stock they get for nothing will be worth par." He was a little ashamed as he said it. He was merely repeating what he had told his customers in advance of the issue, but they had not returned his gaze with Adam's eyes. "But you in your heart, Phil, are convinced that it will _not_ strike virgin copper, aren't you? So much so that you wouldn't take Madeleine's money, or my money, to put into it." These search-lights of Gregg's had a way of uncovering many secret places. Philip turned in his chair and looked at Adam. What was the matter with the dear fellow this afternoon, he said to himself. "Certainly not--and for two reasons: first, you are not in the Street; and second, because I never gamble with a friend's money." "But you gamble with the money of the innocent men and women who believe in your firm, and who in the end buy these bonds of the trust company, don't you?"