"He may do that," Phipps acknowledged. "I've given him cause to in my life, and hope to again. But after all, he's a shrewd fellow. He's made money on the Stock Exchange this last week, and he's had the sense not to run up against us. He's not likely to refuse a clear twenty thousand pounds' profit on some shares he's not particularly interested in." Dredlinton knocked the ash from his cigar. He leaned over towards his companion. "Look here, Phipps," he said, "you can never reckon exactly on what a fellow like Wingate will do or what he won't do. It is just possible I may be able to help in this matter." "Good man!" the other exclaimed. "How?" Dredlinton hesitated for a moment. There was a particularly ugly smile upon his lips. "Let us put it in this way," he said. "Supposing you fail altogether with Wingate?" "Well?" "Supposing you then pass him on to me and I succeed in getting him to sell the shares? What about it?" "It will be worth a thousand pounds to you," Phipps declared. "Two!" Phipps shrugged his shoulders. "I don't bargain," he said, "but two let it be--that is, of course, on condition that I have previously failed." Dredlinton's dull eyes glittered. The slight contraction of his lips did nothing to improve his appearance. "I shall do my best," he promised. There was a knock at the door. A clerk from outside presented himself. As he held the door for a moment ajar, a wave of tangled sounds swept into the room,--the metallic clash of a score of typewriters, the shouting and bargaining of eager customers, the tinkle of telephones in the long series of cubicles. "Mr. Wingate is here to see you, sir," the young man announced. "You can show him in," Peter Phipps directed. CHAPTER XIV Phipps received his visitor with a genial smile and outstretched hand. "Delighted to see you, Mr. Wingate," he said heartily. "Take a chair, please. I do not know whether you smoke in the mornings, but these Cabanas," he added, opening the box, "are extraordinarily mild and I think quite pleasant." Wingate refused both the chair and the cigars and appeared not to notice the outstretched hand. "You will forgive my reminding you, Mr. Phipps," he remarked drily, "that my visit this morning is not one of good-will. I should not be here at all except for Lord Dredlinton's assurance that the business on which you desired to see me has nothing whatever to do with the British and Imperial Granaries." "Nothing in the world, Mr. Wingate," was the prompt declaration. "We would very much rather receive you here as a friend, but we will, if you choose, respect your prejudices and come to the point at once." "In one moment." "You have something to say first?" "I have," Wingate replied gravely. "I should not willingly have sought you out. I do not, as a matter of fact, consider that any director of the British and Imperial Granaries deserves even a word of warning. But since I am here, I am going to offer it."