N leaving Elm House, shortly after ten o'clock, Mr. Lismore made for the city. He and Stormont had already taken an office, though the prospects of their being able to establish a business, however modest, on the lines of their late employer's, were doubtful. The trade in the rare metals is in few—and strong—hands, and the good will of Rufus Cran's concern had been promptly acquired by one of his oldest rivals. Moreover they had been losing steadily for weeks on a copper speculation, and were now near to living by their wits.
Stormont, seated at his roll-top desk, with the draft of a circular letter shortly to be issued by the new firm before him, looked up with what an ill-natured acquaintance had once called his “dentifrice grin'—the smile that Lismore hated, possibly because he feared it.
“Well?”
Lismore let his large body drop into a huge easy-chair.
“No luck,” he said. “Not a bit of good.”
“I'm afraid you aren't,” returned Stormont, the smile vanishing as though he had switched it off. “Do you mean to tell me you have found out nothing at all?”
“Not a thing. I never imagined she'd know anything about the platinum; and now I'm satisfied she doesn't.”
“Well, perhaps that's something, after all. What about Douglas Grant? Had Cran mentioned him to her just before he died?”
“I didn't refer to Grant.”
“Why not?”
“Stormont, you are well aware of my feelings regarding—”
“Hang your feelings! Sooner or later, you'll have to face him in the flesh. May as well get used to mentioning his name. Did she speak of him?”
“Not a word.”
“Then I shouldn't wonder if she learned something from the old man,” said Stormont, looking thoughtful. “In the ordinary course of things, Elm House would have gone to Grant. She must be wondering about him. But let that pass. Has she accepted your wife's kind invitation to spend a week or so at Cromer?”
“I'm sorry to say she refused—quite pleasantly, of course. Said she intended to follow out the old man's wishes to the letter.”
Stormont gave a shrug of impatience. “You observed no signs of suspicion on her part?”
“Suspicion!” Lismore was startled. “What should she suspect?”
“Everything—if you were half as nervous then as you are now!”
“I did my best,” said Lismore wearily.
Ignoring the remark, Stormont continued: “Lottie might find out, if properly directed, a good many things for us.”
“She was at Elm House this afternoon.”
“And you never—oh, well, never mind! But you had better have a chat with Lottie first thing in the morning. Only you must bear in mind that she is Miss March's friend—sincerely devoted, no doubt. Again, she was—and still may be—more or less attached to young Grant. So you will have to go warily.”
OR the first time during the interview Lismore's eyes rested on his partner. Until that unhappy last interview with Rufus Cran, Stormont had been paying apparent attentions to Lottie. Were these attentions at an end?
“I will do what I can,” said Lismore. “Lottie will certainly never betray Joan March.”
“Not willingly,” was Stormont's cool qualification. “Well,” he went on briskly, “we must get a move on, Lismore, in one direction or another. Nearly three weeks out of the six months gone, and nothing done. We can't last beyond six months unless we find a pot of money—can we?”
Lismore shuddered. “If we could only lay hands on that middle strip of paper!” he sighed.
“My dear fellow, don't babble! You may be sure the precious strip is in safe hands, and with it the instructions for its destruction on a certain date, failing Grant's return. And the more I think of it, the more I feel that our only hope lies in that event taking place. In fact, I'll begin to move in the matter to-morrow.”
“No, no!”
“Look here, Lismore, you have a good enough reason for desiring the continued absence of Grant, but you have a still better for bringing him home. You are afraid of his going back on you—which I don't for one instant believe he would. On the other hand, without your share of the platinum you are bound for bankruptcy—and a particularly unpleasant sort of bankruptcy it will be! However, if you can suggest how we may get at the platinum without the presence of Grant or that precious middle strip, I'm ready to follow your lead.”
Lismore was mute.