When two such men begin talking together, there is usually a kind of battle to see which voice shall survive; but the relations between Mr Harbury and Mr Barnett were such, that Mr Harbury at once yielded, not without grace, and Mr Barnett, choosing his words, and speaking very slowly, taking care to make a “d” a “d,” and a “t” a “t,” and steering firmly past the “th,” rolled out: “It must be a hundred thousand.” Mr Harbury said that the Magnetic syndicate, if he remembered rightly, had subscribed something of the same kind during the Greenland excitement. Mr Burden, who had read all about the Greenland excitement in the papers, exclaimed: “What a time that was!” Mr Harbury then added that there were infinite possibilities all across the north of Canada, and especially on the lower Snake river. Lord Benthorpe told, at somewhat too great a length, a story about his cousin, Charlie Corne, who had gone shooting up there. Mr Harbury listened with great interest, and remarked that it was nothing to the Big Moose country; and that led him to speak about the fishing there, and that to the harbour, and that to the dispute with Russia. For close upon an hour their speech turned thus upon those things wherein a conquering race delights; and if I have painted the scene of their first meeting at so great a length, and in such detail, it is but due to my desire that every member of this race, who may read these pages, shall know in what an atmosphere the crucial decisions of their history are decided. [Illustration: MR BURDEN OFFERING TO SUBSCRIBE WHATEVER MAY BE NECESSARY] The interest flagged. Lord Benthorpe had repeated the same sentence two or three times; Mr Harbury had not spoken for close upon eight minutes, when Mr Barnett closed the scene. He got up with the air of a man, heavy with creative power, one who has accomplished a long and finally successful task; Mr Harbury got up like an athlete ready for new labours, standing erect and supple. Lord Benthorpe got up, as politicians do, wearily, and by sections of his frame; and Mr Burden got up, as do merchants, with some fuss, rubbing his hands, and pulling occasionally at his coat. It was not his habit to leave a business interview without some final phrase. He would have thought it discourteous. He stood, therefore, a little pompously, and, looking at Mr Barnett, addressed him in the plural, and said: “Remember, gentlemen, I shall be very happy, if there is any occasion, to post you my cheque to-night for a larger....” But Mr Harbury put up his hand with authority, and interfered: “Do not mention it, Mr Burden; the suggestion was mine, but I think Mr Barnett has thoroughly proved to us that the sum proposed is sufficient.” Then he let his hand drop again, and Mr Burden bowed, and they all went out of the room. So it was that, two days afterwards, Mr Burden paid not forty, nor even thirty, but only twenty-five thousand pounds. CHAPTER VIII