Our
difficulties as to capital are at an end, for a full third of it is
guaranteed in Paris, and I expect that small investors and speculators
for the rise will gobble a lot more. We shall plant L10,000,000 worth of
Sahara scrip in sunny France, my boy, and foggy England has underwritten
the rest. It will be a case of 'letters of Allotment and regret,' _and_
regret, Alan, financially the most successful issue of the last dozen
years. What do you say to that?" and in his elation the little man
puffed out his chest and pursing up his lips, blew through them, making
a sound like that of wind among wires.
"I don't know, Mr. Haswell. If we are all alive I would prefer to answer
the question twelve months hence, or later, when we see whether the
company is going to be a practical success as well, or not."
Again Mr. Haswell made the sound of wind among wires, only this time
there was a shriller note in it; its mellowness was gone, it was as
though the air had suddenly been filled with frost.
"A practical success!" he repeated after him. "That is scarcely our
affair, is it? Promoters should not bother themselves with long views,
Alan.
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