“My lord, this interview must terminate. The Bank of England cannot assist you in your speculations. You should have consulted Alexander Corbitt if you wished further credit, should he happen to be your banker.” Stranleigh had risen when he saw the governor on his feet. “I did.” “Then you had better go back to him. He surely never advised you to see me?” “No, but what he told me of the situation filled me with a desire to meet you.” “I dare say. Well, Lord Stranleigh, you have met me. I bid you good morning, sir.” Stranleigh became a deeper crimson at what he considered this rude dismissal. He was not accustomed to being treated in such a way. His shoulders squared back, and the smile left his lips. “Then you don’t want the gold?” he said, almost as sternly as the other had spoken. “What gold?” “My gold.” “I thought you said that all your assets had been vested in the buying of stocks.” “I said, sir, all my assets except one. The one asset remaining is gold.” “Gold?” “Yes.” “In what form?” “In the form of ingots.” “How much gold have you got? What’s its value?” “Now, governor, I put it to you, as one man to another, you’re a little unreasonable. Didn’t I tell you that unless I can multiply a hundred and twenty-three decimal-whatever-it-happens-to-be, I can’t even estimate it? I asked--I hope with courtesy--the favor of your assistance in calculating the value of my gold, but you began to talk about infant schools. You see, I have got a mine down in Cornwall that holds two thousand tons of gold.” “Nonsense,” interrupted the governor, waxing impatient. “There are no gold mines in Cornwall.” “Sir, I did not say there were. The mine I speak of is a copper mine.” “I have had enough of this fooling, my lord, and I think I have already bade you farewell.” “Then you don’t want my gold?” “How many pounds of raw gold have you got?” “Pounds? Oh, I don’t estimate my gold in pounds. I hold at present upward of two thousand tons.” “Two thousand tons! In ore, do you mean?” “Certainly not. If the Bank of England is not an infant school, I suppose it is not a smelting furnace, either. This gold, as I told you, has been smelted, and is in ingots. I came down by twopenny tube to keep my appointment because I had lent my principal automobile to a man named Conrad Schwartzbrod. I see my automobile standing outside, and as I gave Schwartzbrod eight bars of this metal, telling him to take it to his bank, he seems to have taken it to this bank, so if this seminary for young ladies has purchased these eight bars, we may go at once and examine them. My two thousand tons is divided into ingots similar to those Schwartzbrod has sold you.” “Where is your gold?” “A thousand tons of it is in Cornwall still, but can be delivered here within a day or two. The other thousand tons is on a special train of the Great Western Railway, which has already arrived in London, and its contents may be in your vaults this evening if your vans look sharp.”