"
Aynesworth hesitated.
"Wingrave interests me," he answered. "He has had a curious life, and
he is a man with very strange ideas."
Nesbitt finished his drink, and rose up.
"Well," he said, "he's not a man I should care to be associated with.
Not but what I daresay he was right upstairs. He's strong, too, and he
must have a nerve. But he's a brute for all that!"
Nesbitt went his way, and Aynesworth returned upstairs. Wingrave was
alone.
"Have we finished this miserable business?" Aynesworth asked.
"For the present," Wingrave answered. "Mr. Malcolmson will supply you
with a copy of the accounts. See that Hardwell is credited with a
quarter share of the profits. Our dealings are over for the present.
Be prepared to start on Saturday for the West. We are going to look
for those bears."
"But the mine?" Aynesworth exclaimed. "It belongs to you now. Aren't
you going out to examine it?"
Wingrave shook his head.
"No," he said, "I know nothing about mines. My visit could not teach
me anything one way or the other. I have sent a commission of experts.
I am tired of cities and money-making. I want a change."
Aynesworth looked at him suddenly. The weariness was there indeed--was
it his fancy, or was it something more than weariness which shone out
of the dark, tired eyes?
Book II
"MR. WINGRAVE FROM AMERICA"
"Four years ago tonight," Aynesworth said, looking round the club
smoking room thoughtfully, "we bade you farewell in this same room!"
Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame
gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.
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