"Well, then all we can offer is one-half--thirty thousand in cash and ten per cent, of shares in the company," said the other, "and," he added, "I venture to say that ours is a very handsome offer." Tremlett rose from the table with a sarcastic smile. "Let us talk of something else," he said. "I haven't come down here to the City to play at marbles." "Well," asked the old man who was head of the syndicate. "What are your lowest terms?" "I've stated them." "But you don't give us time to inquire into the business," he complained. "I have shown you the actual concession. Surely you are satisfied with it!" "We are." "And I've told you the conditions of the contract. Yet you postpone your decision from day to day!" The five men glanced at each other, rather uneasily Tremlett thought. "Well," he went on. "This is the last time I shall attend any meeting. We come to a decision this morning, or the matter is off. You, gentlemen, don't even show _bona fides_!" "Well, I think you know something of the standing of all of us," the banker said. "That is so. But my cousin complains that he, having offered the concession, you on your part do not attempt to show your intention to take it up." "But we do. We wish to fix a price to-day," remarked another of the men. "A price, gentlemen, which is ridiculous," declared Tremlett. The five men consulted together in undertones, and in the end advanced their offer five thousand pounds. At this Tremlett only shook his shoulders. A further five thousand was the result, and a long discussion followed. "Have you your cousin's authority to accept terms?" asked one of the capitalists. "I have." "Then forty thousand is all we can offer." Tremlett hesitated. "I have a number of payments to make for bribery," he declared. "It will take half that sum." "That does not concern us, my dear sir," said the bald-headed banker. "We know that a concession such as this can only be obtained by the judicious application of palm-oil." "But I must pay out nearly twenty thousand almost immediately," Tremlett said. At this there was another long discussion, whereupon at last the bald-headed man said: "If the payment of the bribes is imperative at once, we will, on consideration of the business being to-day concluded on a forty thousand pound basis, hand you over half the sum at once. That is our final decision." Tremlett was not at all anxious. Indeed he took up his hat and cane, and was about to leave, when two of the men present exercising all their powers of persuasion, got him at last to reseat himself and to accept the sum of twenty thousand pounds down, and twenty thousand thirty days from that date, in addition to a percentage of shares in the company to be formed. Memoranda were drawn up and signed by all parties, whereupon Tremlett took from his pocket the official concession and handed it to the head of the syndicate.