“Matter! Matter!” spluttered Whitey. “You great lumbering dolt! You blind man! Amber can turn us down! He’s only got to put his finger on the map and say ‘Our mine is here,’ to bring our Company to ruin. He’s takin’ the first step to-morrow. The Colonial Office is going to ask us to locate the River of Stars--and we’ve got to give them an answer in a week.” Lambaire sank back into his chair, his head bent in thought. He was a slow thinker. “We can take all the money that’s come in and bolt,” he said, and Whitey’s shrill contemptuous laugh answered him. “You’re a Napoleon of finance, you are,” he piped; “you’re a brain broker! You’ve got ideas that would be disgustin’ in a child of fourteen! Bolt! Why, if you gave any sign of boltin’ you’d have half the splits in London round you! You’re----” “Aw, dry up, Whitey,” growled the big man. “I’m tired of hearing you.” “You’ll be tireder,” said Whitey, and his excitement justified the lapse. “You’ll be tireder in Wormwood Scrubbs, servin’ the first part of your sentence--no, there’s no bolt, no bank, no fencing business; we’ve got to locate the mine.” “How?” “Somebody knows where it is--that girl knows, I’ll swear. Amber knows--there’s another party that knows--but that girl knows.” He bent his head till his lips were near Lambaire’s ear. “There’s another River of Stars Company been floated,” he whispered, “and it’s the real river this time. Lambaire, if you’re a man we’ve got the whole thing in our hands.” Whitey went on slowly, emphasizing each point with the thrust of his finger at Lambaire’s snowy shirt-front till it was spotted with little grey irregular discs. “If we can go to the Colonial Office and say, ‘This is where we found the mine,’ and it happens to be the identical place where Amber’s gang say they found it, we establish ourselves and kill Amber’s Company.” The idea began to take shape in Lambaire’s mind. “We’ve announced the fact that we’ve located the mine,” Whitey went on. “Amber’s goin’ to make the same announcement. We jump in first--d’ye see?” “I don’t quite follow you,” said Lambaire. “You wouldn’t,” snarled Whitey. “Listen--if we say our mine is located at a certain place, the Colonial Office will ask Amber if there is a diamond mine there, and Amber will be obliged to say, Yes--that’s where my mine is! But what chance has Amber got? All along we’ve claimed that we have found a mine; it’s only an eleventh hour idea of Amber’s; it is his word against ours--and we claimed the mine first!” Lambaire saw it now; slowly he began to appreciate the possibilities of the scheme. “How did you find all this out?” he asked. “Saw Amber--he dropped a hint; took the bull by the horns and went to the Colonial Office. There’s a chap there I know--he gave me the tip. We shall get a letter to-morrow asking us to explain exactly where the mine is. It appears that there is a rotten law which requires the Government to ‘proclaim’ every mining area.”