"Who could know better than I, who have been down every day, who have watched every working, examined each skep of ore that came up, and assayed every pig of lead and ingot of silver. Doctor, I should have thought that you could have trusted me." The Doctor sank down into his patients' chair, and stared at his visitor aghast. "Clive Reed--Clive, my boy--is--is this true?" "You know it is true, sir!" cried the young man savagely, as he now took up the Doctor's role of patrolling the room. "Do you, who have known me from a boy, ask me whether I would have deliberately swindled you into putting your savings into a worthless venture?" "No, no, not wilfully, my boy, but by a mistake." "Mistake! There was no mistake. Doctor, an enemy hath done this thing, and people are only too ready to believe the evil instead of the good. Well, I'm glad I know. But how is it that no report has reached me at the mine? Why, of course: I have seen no paper for days. I am so busy that I often do not open them when they come over from the town." "Then--then this really is a false report, Clive?" "Literally false, sir, and you have thrown your thousands away." The Doctor groaned. "No, no: not yet. There is hope. Look here. I must buy those shares back at once." "Bah!" exclaimed Clive. "Look here, Doctor: if I were dangerously ill I would sooner trust you than any man in London; but in money matters I think just as my poor father thought." "That I was a mere baby? Yes, he always told me so," said the Doctor, with a sigh. "But I made a lot of money, too." "Yes, sir, but couldn't keep it," cried the young man angrily. "Don't--don't jump on me now I'm down, Clive, my boy," cried the Doctor piteously. "I have been an old fool. I ought to have trusted you that you would warn me. But you were away; all London was ringing with the business, and in my rage and disappointment I thought I was doing right." "I suppose so," said Clive bitterly. "But it is not too late. We'll go up to your brother at once." "My brother will only be too glad to triumph over you." "But this Mr Wrigley?" "Knew perfectly well what he was about, or he would not have bought." "But I must buy again, if not from him--from some one else." "You cannot. As soon as the truth is known the shares will go back to their old place at a bound, and then in the reaction rise rapidly, for the public will grasp that the mine must be as it is, exceedingly valuable." "But before the truth is known." "I shall go and get it made known on 'Change the moment it is open, sir." "But--but if you waited a little while, Clive, to give me time, I--" "My old friend--my father's trusted companion would not ask me to wait an instant before crushing a blackguardly conspiracy, sir. I cannot wait, and if I can trace this business to the source, I'll do it, if it costs me thousands." "You--you don't think that Jessop--"