I had reason to know that it tickled the hide of Baron Grant unpleasantly. It managed to hit on a number of raw spots in his past career, and in particular interfered with the Emma mine proceedings. While I spoke as a private person, my charges might be disregarded, but when a publication, reasonably responsible in damages and absolutely responsible in a criminal charge, made a downright allegation of fraud, that was quite another thing. The libel laws of England were then, as now, airtight. It was not a jocular affair to call anyone a thief in print, and those who did not seek redress had to suffer under the suspicion, just or unjust, that the accusation was substantially true. The Emma mine was brought out in two sections, for promoting each of which Baron Grant received a commission of £100,000. When the first section was issued it almost took a squad of policemen to keep back the crowd of investors. The second appeared just after the Stock Exchange Review began to hammer. While the stock was taken, the promotion staggered and was never quite itself again. One thing it prevented absolutely--the declaring of a great dividend--on air--which would have sent the stock skyward like a rocket. The managers had determined on this piece of rascality, but doubtless fearing that I had certain knowledge of the fact that not a dollar’s worth of precious metal had been produced, this particular piece of villainy was reluctantly abandoned. In the meanwhile, I began to have suspicions of the integrity of Samson, the financial editor of the London Times. I could not think he was ignorant of what was going on in the Emma mine deal. His attitude toward several shady promotions looked, to say the least, queer. In the days of our intimacy Baron Grant had more than once broadly intimated that he possessed some kind of mysterious hold on Samson. Whenever I suggested Samson’s name as a possible factor in our enterprises he always said smilingly, “He’ll be all right.” For some time previous I had a passionate yearning to get a look at the financial writer’s bank account.