I am tired of my own shortcomings, and I have no doubt the reader is also, if she has read this far. I shall therefore make no attempt to excuse my language toward Gertrude Hemster. The heated conversation in which we indulged had, however, one effect upon my future course. I resolved not to say a word to her father against his treatment of her. Whatever the old gentleman had said to her, it could not have been cruder or ruder than the language which I had myself employed. Therefore I felt it would be ludicrous for me to act the part of censor or adviser. I had shown my own unfitness for either of those rÔles. Besides this, I had been convinced that Hilda Stretton was entirely mistaken in thinking that the young woman would commit suicide or do any injury to herself. My summing up of her character led me to the belief that although she would be quite willing to inflict pain upon others, she would take good care not to act to her own discomfort. Seizing the first opportunity that presented itself, I told Miss Stretton my determination, and, while she did not agree with me, she made no effort to induce me to forego my resolution.

The bustle pertaining to our safe arrival at Nagasaki drove all other subjects from my mind, and I was inclined to think that my recent troubles and quarrels arose through the well-known activity of Satan to provide employment for idle hands. We were now busy enough. There had accumulated at Nagasaki a mass of letters and a bundle of cablegrams for Mr. Hemster which required his immediate attention, and in his disposal of these messages I caught a glimpse of the great business man he really was. However lax he might have proved in his conduct toward his only daughter, he showed himself a very Napoleon in the way he faced the problems presented to him, settling momentous affairs thousands of miles away by the dispatch of a code word or two.

In all this, so far as my abilities permitted, I was his humble assistant, and I found myself filled with admiration and astonishment at his powers of concentration and the brilliancy of his methods. The little naphtha launch was kept running backward and forward between the yacht and the telegraph office, and during the long day that followed our arrival at Nagasaki that roll-top desk was a centre of commercial activity vastly different in its efficiency from the lazy routine to which I had been accustomed in the diplomatic service. My own nervous tension kept me going until the long day had passed, and the time seemed as but a few minutes. At the end I was as tired as if I had spent twelve hours continuously on the football field, and for the first time in my life I realized how men are burnt up in their pursuit of the mighty dollar. My natural inclination was to doubt whether the game was worth the candle, but during the progress of the game there was no question, for it held on the alert every faculty a man possessed, and I could well believe that it might exert a fascination that indulgence in mere gambling could never equal.

Silas K. Hemster himself was like a man transformed; the eyes which I had hitherto considered dull and uninteresting became aglow with the excitement of battle. His face was keen, stern, and relentless; I saw he was an enemy who gave no quarter and expected none. His orders to me were sharp and decisive, and I no more thought of questioning them than of offering unsought advice regarding them. He was like an exiled monarch come again to his throne; for the first time in our brief acquaintance I had seen the real Hemster, and the sight had given me a feeling of my own inane inadequacy in the scheme of things here below. When at last the day was done, his face relaxed, and he leaned back in his swivel chair, regarding me with eyes that had taken on their old kindliness. He seemed enlivened rather than exhausted by the contest, as if he had taken a sip of the elixir of youth.

“Well, my boy,” he said, “you’re tired out. You look as if you had been running a race.”

“That is exactly what I’ve been doing, sir.”

The old gentleman laughed.

“Let’s see,” he mused ruminatingly, “did we have lunch or not?”

“You consumed a sandwich which I placed on your desk, Mr. Hemster, and I bolted another during one of my rushes for the dispatch-boat.”

Again he laughed.

“I had forgotten,” he said, “but we will enjoy our dinner all the more when we sit down to it. Confess that you’re used up.”

“Well, sir, I don’t feel just as active as I did in the morning.”

The old gentleman shook his head with a slow motion that had something of pity in it.

“You English have no aptitude for business. It shows the decadent state of Europe that Britain has held supremacy on that continent for so long.”

“I should be sorry, sir, if you took me for a typical example of the English business man. I doubt if in any respect I am a credit to my country, still I am not such an idiot as to suppose I shine as a man of affairs. My training has been against me, even if I had any natural aptitude for commerce, which I doubt. Still, we are supposed to possess some creditable captains of industry on our little island.”

“Supposed! That’s just it, and the supposition holds good until they are up against something better. Now, if you were in Chicago, and you wished me to join you in a deal while I was cruising on the coast of Japan, what would you do?”

“I should write you a letter explaining the project I had to put before you.”

“Quite so. You wouldn’t go to the expense of cabling the whole thing, would you?”

“If the scheme was important enough I might go to that cost.”

The old gentleman held in his hand two or three cable messages which I had not seen, also a letter or two.

“Now, here is a man,” he said, “who has hit upon a plan I have often thought of myself. He has, he tells me, made a combination which possesses considerable strength, but in order to be impregnable he needs my co-operation. He cables the points very concisely, and puts his case with a good deal of power; but that cablegram is merely an advance agent for himself, expensive as it is. His object is to hold me at Yokohama until he can arrive. He actually crosses the continent to San Francisco, and takes the first steamer for Japan. I received his cablegram at Yokohama, but did not wait for him. I sent off a word or two myself to Chicago, asking confidential information which I have now received. Just before we left for Corea I got a telegram from this man in Yokohama, asking me to wait for him at Nagasaki, which I did not do, because I wished to impress on the energetic individual that I was not anxious to fall in with his plan, and I knew that, having come so far, he would not return without seeing me. Meanwhile I determined to find out whether his combination is as strong as he said it was, and this information is now in my possession. Also, I wished on my own account to make a combine so formidable that whether I gave my adherence to the one or the other my weight would tip the beam in favour of the one I joined. This combination also has been completed, and I hold the balance, of course. Our friend who has come over from Japan probably does not know that there is any opposition to his scheme, and no one in the world except yourself and myself and a man in Chicago knows I have anything to do with the other combine. You see I am just yachting for pleasure and for health, and am reluctant to touch business at all. At least, that is the information which I intend to be imparted to our friend, who is now impatiently awaiting me at the Nagasaki Hotel. You might think that I should invite him to come aboard my yacht and talk the matter over, or that I should go ashore and visit him, which he asks me to do; but I shall do neither. You see I want Mr. John C. Cammerford to realize that he is not nearly so important in the commercial affairs of America as he supposes himself to be.”

“John C. Cammerford!” I cried in amazement. “I think I have met him in New York, though it may not be the same man.”

“Well, the name is not a common one, and if you know him, all the better. I now instruct you to call on him first thing to-morrow morning. You will notice that I have trusted you fully in this matter by giving you information which must not leak through to Cammerford. You will tell him, however, that his combination is not the only one in the United States, and if I’m to join his he must prove to me that it is stronger than the opposition. He must give you a list of the firms he has combined, and he will have to show you the original documents pertaining to the options he has received. I want to know how long his options last. They will probably have at least six months’ life, or he could never have taken this journey to see me. If he satisfies you that his combination is genuine, and that his options have still several months to run, then I shall consent to meet him. If he cannot do this, or if he refuses to do it, I shall send a few cables which will certainly upset his apple-cart before he reaches San Francisco. You will not promise anything on my behalf, and I should have no objection if he imagines that my lack of eagerness in meeting him is caused by the fact that the other combination appears to me the stronger.”

“Would you mind my sending to him your card instead of my own? He might possibly refuse to meet me if I sent in the name of Tremorne.”

“That’s all right. Use my card if you wish. The main point is that you get as much information as possible, and give as little in return as may be. There’s the dinner gong, and I’m quite ready to meet whatever’s on the table. Come along.”

Next morning after breakfast I went ashore, and, arriving at the Nagasaki Hotel, sent up Mr. Hemster’s card to Mr. John C. Cammerford, and was promptly admitted to his presence. He occupied what I took to be the finest suite of rooms in the hotel, and had a large table placed near the principal window of his sitting-room, so that his back was to the light, which shone full on the face of any visitor who called upon him. It was quite evident to me that Mr. Cammerford hoped to impress Silas K. Hemster with the fact that he was carrying on great affairs right here in Japan similar to those that occupied his attention in Chicago. The table was littered with papers, and Cammerford sat busily writing as if every moment was of importance. All his plans for the impression of a visitor fell to pieces like a house of cards when the astonished man saw who was approaching him. He sprang to his feet with a cry of dismay and backed toward the window. From his position I could not very well read the expression on his face, but it seemed to be one of fear.

“I’m expecting another man,” he cried, “you have no right here. Get out.”

“I beg your pardon, Mr. Cammerford, I have a right here, and I have come to talk business.”

“What are you following me for? Why are you here?” he cried.

“I am here as the representative of Silas K. Hemster, of Chicago, and with his permission I sent up his card to you.”

Gradually his self-possession returned to him, but he took care to keep the table between himself and me. He indulged in a little cynical laugh.

“You took me by surprise, Mr. Tremorne. I—I thought perhaps you intended trying to collect—a—a little account of your own.”

“No, I came entirely on Mr. Hemster’s behalf. Have I your permission to be seated?”

“Certainly. Sit down, sit down,” and, saying this with an effort at bluff geniality, he placed himself in the chair he had so abruptly vacated.

“I thought, as I said before,” he added, with another uneasy laugh, “that you had some notion of collecting a little money from me. The last time we met you held a very mistaken view of the business matter in which we had been associated. I assure you now—you wouldn’t listen then—that everything done was strictly legal, and no one was more sorry than I that the deal did not prove as successful as we had both hoped.”

“You cover me with confusion, Mr. Cammerford. I have no remembrance that I ever disputed the legality of the transaction, and I deeply regret that I seem to have permitted myself at the time to use harsh language which you are quite justified in deploring. If it is any comfort to you, I beg to assure you that I look upon the half-million dollars as irretrievably lost, and at this hour yesterday had no more idea you were in Japan than you had that I was, if you did me the honour to think of me.”

Cammerford gazed doubtfully across the table at me, as if he feared there was something sinister behind all this show of submission.

“It was you, then, who sent up Mr. Hemster’s card?”

“Yes. He asked me to see you.”

“Why couldn’t he come himself? Is he ill?”

“No, he never was in better health,” I answered; “but he is exceedingly busy. I am by way of being his confidential man, and if you can prove to me that the claims you have made are real, I shall have much pleasure in arranging an interview between you.”

“Oh, that’s how the land lies, is it? What do you know of my proposals to Mr. Hemster?”

“I have read all your letters and telegrams relating to the matter this morning; in fact, I have them in my pocket now.”

“Mr. Hemster seems to repose great trust in you. That is rather unusual with him. I suppose you have some document to prove that you are empowered to deal?”

“As a matter of fact I am not empowered to deal. I am merely the avant coureur of Mr. Hemster. I sent you up his card, and here are your own letters, telegrams, and cablegrams. I was told to inform you that since you have left America another combination which Mr. Hemster considers nearly if not quite as strong as your own has been put through, and Mr. Hemster has been invited to join. He is well acquainted with the person who has effected the second combination, but, as you have just intimated, Mr. Hemster is not a man to allow personal considerations to deflect him from the strict business path. If you can show that your combination is the stronger, I can guarantee that you will have opportunity of speaking with Mr. Hemster. If not, he sails away to-morrow in his yacht, and deprives himself of the pleasure of meeting you, as you happen to be an entire stranger to him.”

“How am I to show him all this if he refuses to see me?”

“You are to convince me of two things by exhibiting the original documents: first, that these firms mentioned in your letters have given you options; and second, the length of the options,—the date on which they expire, in fact.”

“And if I refuse?” said Cammerford, seemingly puzzled and displeased at the trend of our conversation.

I rose to my feet and bowed to him.

“If you refuse,” I said, “that ends my mission. Good-morning to you.”

“Wait a bit, wait a bit,” cried Cammerford, “sit down, Mr. Tremorne. This requires a little thought. Please don’t go; just sit down for a moment. I don’t see how Mr. Hemster can expect me to show my whole hand to one who, begging your pardon, is a comparative stranger, and one who will have nothing to do with our transaction. Secrecy is the very soul of such a deal as I am trying to put through. What guarantee have I that you will not cable to New York or Chicago full particulars of what I am asked to tell you.”

“None whatever, Mr. Cammerford.”

“Well, that’s not business.”

“Quite so. Then I shall report your opinion to Mr. Hemster.”

“What’s his object? Why doesn’t he come and see me himself?”

“I think I may go so far as to say that he wishes to know whether or not it is worth his while to meet you. You see, Mr. Cammerford, you are a stranger to him. He was good enough to hint that if I reported favourably on your scheme, he would wait over a day or two and go into the matter with you. As I have said, he is exceedingly busy. I left him immersed in letters and cablegrams, and all day yesterday we were over head and ears in matters of rather large importance. If you had been his Chicago acquaintance who formed the other combine, I imagine he would have seen you; as it is, he has sent me.”

“Well, now, look here, Tremorne,” cried Cammerford, with a fine assumption of honest bluffness, “let us talk as man to man. We’re not school-boys or sentimental girls. You know as well as I do that there is not one chance in ten million for my seeing old Hemster if the choice in the matter lies with you. You are exceedingly polite, and speak as sweetly as molasses, but I wasn’t born yesterday, and am not such a darned fool as to suppose you are going to put in a good word for me.”

“You are quite right, Mr. Cammerford; I shall put in no good word for you that I can possibly keep out. Nevertheless I shall report fairly to Mr. Hemster exactly what you place before me.”

“Oh, that’s all guff. You’ll knife me because you’ve got the chance to do it. I quite admit it will be done with smooth talk, but it will be effective nevertheless.”

“If you believe that, Mr. Cammerford, I shall make no endeavour to convince you of the contrary. You will act, of course, as best serves your own interest. Personally I do not care a halfpenny whether the great beef combine is formed in the interest of the dear public, or goes to smash through the non-agreement of its promoters. I fancy you cannot float such a trust and leave Mr. Hemster out, but you know more about that than I. Now it’s your next move. What are you going to do?”

Cammerford leaned across the table, showing me his crafty eyes narrowing as he seemed trying to find out what my game really was. I knew exactly where his error lay in dealing with me. He could not believe that I was honestly trying to serve my employer, and so he was bound to go wrong in any assumption formed by taking such false premises for granted.

“See here, Tremorne, I’m going to talk straight business to you. Whatever may be our pretences, we are none of us engaged in this for our health; we want to make money. I want to make money; Hemster wants to make money; don’t you want to make money?”

“Certainly,” I replied, “that’s what I’m here for.”

“Now you’re shouting,” exclaimed Cammerford, an expression of great relief coming into his face. He thought that at last he had reached firm ground. “I confess, then,” he went on, “that it is supremely important I should meet Hemster, and he should be favourably disposed toward me. It is not likely I should have taken a journey clear from New York to Nagasaki if there wasn’t a good deal at stake. You see, I’m perfectly frank with you. You’ve got the drop on me. Just now my hands are right up toward the ceiling, and I’m willing to do the square thing. Did you know whom you were going to meet when you left the yacht?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Mr. Hemster mentioned my name to you?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Did you tell him anything of our former dealings?”

“No, I did not.”

“He does know you lost half a million in the States a while since?”

“Oh, yes, he knows that, but he doesn’t know you’re the man who got it.”

“Hang it all, Tremorne; don’t put it that way. I’m not the man who got it; I lost money as well as you did.”

“Oh, I beg your pardon; I thought we were talking frankly and honestly to each other. Well, be that as it may, Mr. Hemster knows I lost the money, but he doesn’t know you’re the man who was so unfortunate as to be in the business with me.”

“Well now, Tremorne, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You say nothing of this former company of ours, and if you will report favourably on what I have to tell you so that old Hemster will come and see me, or allow me to go to him, I’ll give you two hundred thousand dollars cash as soon as our deal is completed.”

“I refuse it.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“No, I do not, but I refuse it nevertheless. I should refuse it if you offered me the money here and now.”

Cammerford leaned back in his chair.

“You want to go the whole hog?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” said I.

“You want the whole five hundred thousand or nothing. Well, I tell you at once I can’t afford to give that much. I’ll raise fifty thousand dollars, and make the total amount two hundred and fifty; but I can’t go a cent more, and there is no use trying to bluff me.”

“I am not trying to bluff you, Mr. Cammerford. I should refuse the bribe if you made it five hundred thousand.”

“Oh, it’s not a bribe at all, it’s—well, whatever you like to call it. Restitution if you prefer to put it that way.”

“It doesn’t matter what it is called, I have come for the purpose of hearing what you have to say regarding the great beef combine. If you have nothing to say I shall leave, because, as I told you, Mr. Hemster has a good deal of work on his hands, and I’m trying to help him.”

“Well,” said Cammerford, in a hopeless tone of voice, “you are the darndest fool I ever met in my life.”

“You are not the first person who has said as much, Mr. Cammerford, although not in precisely the same language. Now, for the last time, give me a list of the names of those who are behind you.”

“I’ll do that if you will promise me not to say anything to old Hemster about our former relations.”

“I regret that I cannot make you any such promise, Mr. Cammerford. It is my duty to lay before Mr. Hemster everything you place before me, and it is also my duty to warn him that I consider you as big a scoundrel as you consider me a fool.”

“That’s plain talk,” said Cammerford, scowling.

“I intend it to be. Now, without further loss of time, let me see your documents.”

For some minutes Cammerford maintained silence, a heavy frown on his brow, and his eyes fixed on the carpet beneath the table. At last he muttered, “Well, I’m damned!”—and, taking a bundle of papers from before him, he slipped off the elastic band, picked out one after another which he perused with care, then handed them across the table to me, watching me very narrowly as he did so. I took the papers one by one and read them over, making a note with my pencil now and then in my pocket-book. They proved to be exactly what he had said they were in his letter to Mr. Hemster. I pushed them back toward him again, saying:

“I see by some of these documents that the option is for six months, but others make no mention of the time. Why is that?”

“Because we have bought the businesses and the options are ours for ever.”

“Have you anything to prove that?”

Without further reply he selected several other papers and presented them to me. These also were satisfactory.

“I shall report to Mr. Hemster that your position appears to be quite as strong as you stated it to be, and so I wish you good-morning, Mr. Cammerford.”

“Hold your horses a minute,” he cried, seeing me about to arise. “As you have asked me a whole lot of questions, I’d like you to answer a few of mine. Who’s in this other combine?”

“I know nothing of it, except that it is in existence.”

“Do you imagine it’s a bluff?”

“I tell you I don’t know. I should think Mr. Hemster is not a man to engage in bluff.”

“Oh, isn’t he? That shows how little you know of him. Have you been with him ever since he left Chicago?”

“No.”

“How long have you been in his employ?”

“That is a private matter, Mr. Cammerford, which concerns no one but myself and Mr. Hemster. Besides, to tell you the truth, I came here to receive information, not to impart it; so it is useless to question me further.”

“Oh, one more won’t do any harm,” said Cammerford, rising when I had risen; “do you think old Hemster will consent to see me?”

“I am almost certain that he will.”

“Through your recommendation, eh?”

“No, I shall strongly advise him not to see you.”

“Well, I’m damned if I understand your game. It’s either too deep or too mighty shallow for me.”

“It doesn’t occur to you, Mr. Cammerford, that there’s no game at all, and therefore there can be neither depth nor shallowness. You are troubling your mind about what does not exist.”

“Then I am forced to take refuge in my former assumption, not at all a flattering one, which is that you’re a fool.”

“I think that’s the safest position to assume, Mr. Cammerford; so, finally, good-bye.”

I left the man standing at the head of the stairs, his hands on the banister, gazing after me with an expression of great discontent.