“Then I’ll wait, and see if I can get more for these,” Brainard suggested smilingly. “There’s no hurry about the matter. I came to you first,” he said, “because I supposed you would have the old man’s account checked up, and know just what was coming to him.” The banker smiled at the young man’s simplicity. “Business is not done that way. It is a question to whom the property belongs,” he added meaningly. “I see! Well, it belongs to me at present—” “Let us say a hundred thousand—in cash, paid to you personally,” the banker interrupted hastily. “You think you are bidding for stolen goods, eh, and can get them cheap?” Brainard suggested. “Four hundred thousand marks is much money!” “A whole lot of money—no question about that!” the young American remarked with a quizzical smile, thinking that ten dollars was more ready money than he had had, of his own, for many months. “But it isn’t enough!” “Are you not ready for dinner?” the banker suggested genially. “We can have our dinner here and talk matters over quietly. I will explain.” They dined at great leisure, while the banker gave Brainard his first lessons in corporation finance, with apt illustrations from the history of Krutzmacht’s enterprises. He explained how an individual or a corporation might be put into bankruptcy and yet be intrinsically very rich,—the spoil always going to the stronger in the struggle. He had ordered a magnum of champagne, and pressed the wine upon the young man with hospitable persistence; but Brainard felt that if he ever wanted to keep his head clear, this was the time, and he drank little. He suspected the banker’s geniality. From finance the banker drifted to the topic of Krutzmacht himself. He told many stories of the old man, which showed his daring and his ability to take what he could get wherever he found it. “He was always talking about that mine—the one in Arizona. He expected to make a very big fortune from it some day. It was to get money with which to develop his mine, I believe, that he went into all the other things,” Herr Schneider explained. “The Melody mine!” the young man murmured to himself. “That was it! He sank one fortune in it, but he would never let go—that was his way.” When they had reached their coffee, the banker turned suddenly upon Brainard. “Have you made up your mind to take my offer?” “Your people here have a good deal of money tied up in this business?” “A good deal more than I wish we had,” the banker replied frankly. “So we must send more down the well to bring back what’s there already. We shall have a fight on our hands, too.” “I don’t understand business,” the young man said. “The chances are that Mel—Krutzmacht’s heirs don’t, either. That’s why he told me to come over here to dispose of his stuff. The best I can do is to take cash and quit.” “Exactly!” the banker beamed.