He had scarcely finished his conversation when the Saint erupted volcanically back into the house; and Mr. Wilmer-Steck was suffering from such profound emotion that he plunged into the subject of his visit without preamble.
'Our directors have gone carefully into the matter of those shares you mentioned, Captain Tombs, and I am happy to be able to tell you that we are prepared to buy them immediately, if we can come to an agreement. By the way, will you tell me again the exact extent of your holding?'
'A nominal value of two thousand pounds,' said the Saint. 'But as for their present value --'
'Two thousand pounds!' Mr. Wilmer-Steck rolled the words almost gluttonously round his tongue. 'And I don't think you even told us the name of the company.'
'The British Honduras Mineral Development Trust.'
'Ah, yes! The British Honduras Mineral Development Trust! . . . Naturally our position must seem somewhat eccentric to you, Captain Tombs,' said Mr. Wilmer-Steck, who appeared to have only just become conscious of the fact, 'but I can assure you --'
'Don't bother,' said the Saint briefly.
He went to his desk and flicked open a drawer, from which he extracted the bundle of shares.
'I know your position as well as you know it yourself. It's one of the nuisances of running a bucket-shop that you have to have shares to work on. You couldn't have anything more worthless than this bunch, so I'm sure everyone will be perfectly happy. Except, perhaps, your clients-but we don't have to worry about them, do we?'
Mr. Wilmer-Steck endeavoured to look pained, but his heart was not in the job.
'Now, if you sold those shares for, let's say, three hundred pounds --'
'Or supposing I got five hundred for them-- 'If you were offered four hundred pounds, for instance --'
'And finally accepted five hundred --'
'If, as we were saying, you accepted five hundred pounds,' agreed Mr. Wilmer-Steck, conceding the point reluctantly, 'I'm sure you would not feel you had been unfairly treated.'
'I should try to conceal my grief,' said the Saint.
He thought that his visitor appeared somewhat agitated, but he never considered the symptom seriously. There was a little further argument before Mr. Wilmer-Steck was persuaded to pay over the amount in cash. Simon counted out the fifty crisp new ten-pound notes which came to him across the table, and passed the share certificates over in exchange. Mr. Wilmer-Steck counted and examined them in the same way.
'I suppose you're quite satisfied?' said the Saint. 'I've warned you that to the best of my knowledge and belief those shares aren't worth a fraction of the price you've paid for them --'
'I am perfectly satisfied,' said Mr. Wilmer-Steck. He pulled out his large gold chronometer and glanced at the dial. 'And now, if you will excuse me, my dear Captain Tombs, I find I am already late for an important engagement.'
He made his exit with almost indecent haste.
In an office overlooking the Haymarket he found two men impatiently awaiting his return. He took off his hat, mopped his forehead, ran a hand over his waistcoat, and gasped.
'I've lost my watch,' he said.
'Damn your watch,' said Mr. Julian Lamantia callously. 'Have you got those shares?'
'My pocket must have been picked,' said the bereaved man plaintively. 'Yes, I got the shares. Here they are. It was a wonderful watch, too. And don't you forget I'm on to half of everything we make.'
Mr. Lamantia spread out the certificates in front of him, and the man in the brown bowler who was perched on a corner of the desk leaned over to look.
It was the latter who spoke first.
'Are these the shares you bought, Meyer?' he asked in a hushed whisper.
Wilmer-Steck nodded vigorously.
'They're going to make a fortune for us. Gushers blowing oil two hundred yards in the air-that's the news you'll see in the papers tomorrow. I've never worked so hard and fast in my life, getting Tombs to --'
'Who?' asked the brown bowler huskily.
'Captain Tombs-the mug I was working. But it's brain that does it, as I'm always saying . . . What's the matter with you, Fred-are you feeling ill?'
Mr. Julian Lamantia swivelled round in his chair.
'Do you know anything about these shares, Jorman?' he demanded.
The brown bowler swallowed.
'I ought to,' he said. 'I was doing a big trade in them three or four years ago. And that damned fool has paid five hundred pounds of our money for 'em-to the same man that swindled me of thirty pounds only last week! There never was a British Honduras Mineral Development Trust till I invented it and printed the shares myself. And that- that --'
Meyer leaned feebly on the desk.
'But listen, Fred,' he pleaded. 'Isn't there some mistake? You can't mean-After all the imagination and brain work I put into getting those shares --'
