“Why, you see, it’s never been you as much as the company you’ve kept, that bothered your father and the other old fellows, and I’ve had the honor to be the one they objected to most. I never could do anything with Moffat; but I’ve put in my odd moments ever since the first of the year in convincing Cartwright and Meredith that I’m all right. If they once believe that, it’ll take away their only objection to you.” “This is the first I’ve heard of that move,” said John. “I haven’t mentioned it because at first I was so confounded unsuccessful that I hated to own up how badly I’d been beat. They were prickly as the very devil at first. And then when they commenced to come round, I thought I’d wait until I had them all done up in a neat parcel and hand them over to you as a sort of Christmas present. They and their wives were the people we had to dinner last night. I tell you, Harriet was the trump card of the whole hand. She swung them nearer into line in two hours than I had done in two months. I think that we’ve just about landed them. Of course, they’re only two out of the three, but still that means something.” Next to John’s capacity for perfectly calm, impersonal judgment, the most valuable thing in his commercial equipment was a sort of intuitive grasp of a situation, an ability instantly to correlate scattered circumstances without waiting for the mind’s slower, logical processes. In other words, he possessed the same sort of creative imagination that characterizes great generals. Before Sponley had fairly finished speaking, he had fully comprehended the strategic possibilities of the speculator’s ground. Supposing that Sponley were working in his own interests, John knew exactly the strength and the limitations of Sponley’s position. And in the same instant he took the decision that the man he had known intimately for twenty years would bear watching. He went no further than that. He did not jump to the conclusion that his friend meant to betray him. But the knowledge that Sponley might, if he chose, take advantage of his hold on the two old trustees, made him alert. Sponley got slowly to his feet. “I’m ready for my lunch,” he said. “You don’t happen to want another, do you?” “No,” said John, “and I’ve got a big afternoon’s work ahead, even if I did.” “Nothing especially new has turned up to-day, I suppose?” John shook his head. “Well, come round and see us when you can get time. Good-by.” As Sponley left the room, he thought: “There’s something in that Pickering business. If there hadn’t been, he’d have mentioned it.” When he passed Curtin’s desk, he spoke to him:-- “Going to be home to-night? I’m coming round to see you.” CHAPTER VII THE SPY