"You want to tinker with the situation, to keep the shareholders in the dark, while you try to patch up a tottering concern? It's an impossible course! The truth must be faced boldly and the Company reorganized from the start!' "If that is so, it must be done by the directors, with great caution. I must beg you not to force our hands." "Well," replied Andrew, "I have nothing more to say. I shall attend the meeting and do what seems advisable." He left the office, convinced that he could take only a bold, independent course, for no help could be expected from the men he had called on. Leonard's influence over them could not be combated. He thought they might honestly doubt that the state of affairs was as serious as he had represented; but if they were convinced of this, their chief desire would be to keep the mine going long enough to save their credit, and to make disclosure gradually. He was glad he had told them nothing about the richness of the Graham lode and that the claims on it were held under his personal control. On reaching his hotel, he wrote to the directors he had not been able to see, though he did not expect much result from this, and the next morning he left for his home. Though he had a cordial welcome, he did not explain his plans to his relatives, and Florence seemed to regard him with suspicion. A week later Leonard came down to take her home, and asked for a private interview after dinner on the night of his arrival. Andrew went with him to the library and waited calmly until he began. "We must understand each other," Leonard said. "I hear you have found the lode. Will you tell me your plans?" "Not to begin with. I want some information about yours first. No doubt Mappin cabled you news of our discovery?" "He did. I might retort that you have seen my colleagues and tried to gain them over, in my absence, instead of waiting for my return; but that is not an important matter. What is it you wish to know?" Andrew's voice was quietly steady as he asked the test question upon which their future relations turned: "Do you mean to submit the report to the Rain Bluff shareholders as it stands?" "Yes," Leonard answered curtly, and Andrew knew that there could be no compromise. It was now a trial of strength; one of them must be driven off the field. "Knowing it to be misleading?" he said. "Very well; I can't prevent its issue. I suppose you have heard that your confederate has been beaten in what must be his last attempt to thwart me?" "I heard that an attempt had been made to jump the Company's claims." "My claims," said Andrew. "The Company's, I think. You were our representative when you found them." "We'll let that go; it's not a point that's likely to be raised." As the question of the ownership of the claims seemed to be of importance, Leonard looked puzzled. "Oh, well," he said, "I've told you that, if needful, Mappin must be sacrificed."