the engineering experts tell us whether we will invest in a thing or not." 

 "I don't think I mean the big men of the profession," said his daughter, doubtfully.  "I mean those who do the rough work. The men who dig the mines and lay out the railroads. Do you know any of them?" 

 "Some of them," said Mr. Langham, leaning back and shuffling the cards for a new game.  "Why?" 

 "Did you ever hear of a Mr. Robert Clay?" 

 Mr. Langham smiled as he placed the cards one above the other in even rows.  "Very often," he said.  "He sails to-morrow to open up the largest iron deposits in South America. He goes for the Valencia Mining Company. Valencia is the capital of Olancho, one of those little republics down there." 

 "Do you—are you interested in that company?" asked Miss Langham, seating herself before the fire and holding out her hands toward it. "Does Mr. Clay know that you are?" 

 "Yes—I am interested in it," Mr. Langham replied, studying the cards before him, "but I don't think Clay knows it—nobody knows it yet, except the president and the other officers."  He lifted a card and put it down again in some indecision.  "It's generally supposed to be operated by a company, but all the stock is owned by one man. As a matter of fact, my dear children," exclaimed Mr. Langham, as he placed a deuce of clubs upon a deuce of spades with a smile of content, "the Valencia Mining Company is your beloved father." 

 "Oh," said Miss Langham, as she looked steadily into the fire. 

 Hope tapped her lips gently with the back of her hand to hide the fact that she was sleepy, and nudged her father's elbow.  "You shouldn't have put the deuce there," she said, "you should have used it to build with on the ace." 

 

 

 II 

 A year before Mrs. Porter's dinner a tramp steamer on her way to the capital of Brazil had steered so close to the shores of Olancho that her solitary passenger could look into the caverns the waves had tunnelled in the limestone cliffs along the coast. The solitary passenger was Robert Clay, and he made a guess that the white palisades which fringed the base of the mountains along the shore had been forced up above the level of the sea many years before by some volcanic action.  

 Prev. P 14/177 next