I had no desire to continue business relations with a man who had shown himself so utterly without faith; but I was at some pains to explain the folly of his project from a mere practical standpoint, setting common honesty to one side. I told Baron Grant that I was familiar with the Emma mine, that Mr. Ralston and myself had recently held an option on the property for $350,000; that I had personally inspected the property and found it a nearly worked out “kidney”; that the principal owner had later offered it to me for $250,000; that I considered it dear at any price. In conclusion, I urged that to promote such a fraudulent concern for a huge sum would not only cause a scandal of far-reaching proportions, but would also ruin the market for American securities for many years to come. Baron Grant listened coldly. He said he had every confidence in the Emma mine and those behind it. That the proposition had been brought to England by Trenor W. Park, a New York financier, once of California; that it was vouched for by such men of prominence as Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada and by the American Minister, General Robert Schenck. He had no fear of a mine guaranteed by such weighty names. As for my own properties, he said he would take them up when his convenience suited. Otherwise, he possessed the power to prevent any other interest floating them. The interview ended in a violent quarrel. Even when I demanded my share of the profits in the Mineral Hill deal, Baron Grant held me off with specious promises of speedy settlement, then flatly refused to settle at all. By this time we were sworn enemies. I brought an action for the recovery of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds, $750,000 of our money. The Baron harassed me with the usual legal impediments, but in the end, I may say here, that I gained a judgment and what was more important still, collected the amount sued for in full. I sought new outlets for my mining properties, among the highest financial circles of England, not by means of stock exchange exploitation but by sales to intelligent and provident investors. The North Bloomfield mine was well and favorably known in England. One of its owners was Tom Bell, an English resident of San Francisco, who cut a large figure in the old days. I had actually arranged the complete details of the sale of this property for four hundred thousand pounds. A meeting was held to confirm the transaction and pay in half the purchase price, when an unfortunate remark of Mr. Butterworth caused a halt. He said, doubtless in good faith, that no English manager was capable of handling a California hydraulic mine. But this so offended some of the principal English investors that they quietly withdrew.