“I have duly registered the Company,” observed Mr. Styles; “and I have had an interview with Dummerley, the Engineer, this afternoon! Oh! I can assure you that I have not been idle. Dummerley is ready to swear that he has surveyed the whole line from the south of England to the north of Scotland----” “But how is that possible?” demanded Frank, again lost in astonishment: for, crafty and cunning as he was in petty trickeries, he was altogether bewildered in the mazes of colossal swindles. “You only thought of the plan a few days ago--and Dummerley would not have even had time to travel the whole distance there and back post haste--much less to survey it leisurely.” “You are quite green in these matters, Frank,” observed Mr. Styles. “Green!” ejaculated Captain O’Blunderbuss: “be Jasus! the Imerald Isle itself isn’t so green as my frind Frank in cer-r-r-tain respicts. But it’s afther enlightening him ye are, Misther Sthyles--and he’ll be all the betther for the taching.” “Dummerley is a regular good fellow, I can assure you,” resumed the promoter. “‘_You will be the Engineer_,’ said I to him this afternoon: ‘_I told Podgson that you would._’--‘_Most certainly_,’ he replied.--‘_And in case the Bill should be opposed in Committee, you will be ready to swear that you particularly surveyed the part of the line relative to which objections may be raised?_’--‘_Oh! of course_,’ was his answer.--‘_And you will also swear that your plans are perfectly correct?_’--‘_As a matter of course_,’ he again replied.--‘_Well, then_,’ said I, ‘_here’s a five pound note for you; and now fall to work as hard as you can to get all the plans up in such a business-like way that they may look legitimate_.’--Dummerley accordingly took himself off as happy as a prince; and thus every thing goes on completely in our favour. But it is now three minutes to five; and at five precisely I step into the Hackney omnibus at the Flower-Pot,” added Mr. Styles, looking at his watch for the hundredth time during the last quarter of an hour. Frank Curtis and Captain O’Blunderbuss took the hint and their departure; and the promoter of a scheme for raising millions treated himself with a six-penny ride in an omnibus as far as Cambridge Heath Gate, in which suburban quarter this great man resided in a six-roomed house, including the kitchens. CHAPTER CXXVI. ELUCIDATIONS. At the conclusion of the hundred and twenty-fourth chapter we asked whether Charles Hatfield would succeed in crushing the sentiments of curiosity that had been awakened within him? Alas! no--it was impossible!