Falconer nodded.
"I am making for a concession--a charter from the government."
Falconer nodded again.
"And I want a railway from Danville to Bualbec." His voice almost sank
to a whisper. "Griffinberg, Wirsch, and the rest are with me--or nearly
so--I have got them down to clench the matter. There are millions in
it--if I can bring it off; there is what is worth more than millions to
me--"
Falconer nodded.
--"A peerage for Sir Stephen Orme," said Falconer, with a grim smile.
"For Sir Stephen Orme's boy!" said Sir Stephen, with a flush, and a
flash of the dark eyes. "It is for his sake that I am making this last
throw; for my boy's, Falconer. For myself I am content--why shouldn't I
be? But for him--ah, well, you've seen him! You'll understand!"
Falconer leant back and smoked in silence.
"Plaistow is working the Colonial Office, the Beltons are feeling their
way in the city; Wirsch--but you know how the thing is done! I've got
them down here that they may work it quietly, that I may have them
under my eye--"
"And the lords and ladies--they're to have a finger in the pie because,
though they can't help you in the African business, they can in the
matter of the peerage?"
Sir Stephen smiled. "You'll stand in with us, Falconer? Don't refuse
me! Let me make some reparation--some atonement for the past!" He rose
and stood smiling, an imposing figure with his white hair and brilliant
eyes. Falconer got up slowly and stiffly.
"Thanks. I'll think it over. It's a big thing, as you say, and it will
either make you--"
--"Or break me!" said Sir Stephen, but he laughed confidently.
Falconer nodded.
"I'll go up now," he said.
Sir Stephen went to the door with him, and held out his hand.
"Good-night, Falconer!" he said. "Thank you--for my boy's sake!"
Falconer took the warm hand in his cold one and held it for a moment,
then dropped it.
"Good-night!" he said, with a nod and a sidelong glance.
Sir Stephen went back and poured himself out another _liqueur_ glass of
brandy and heaved a sigh of relief. But it would have been one of
apprehension if he could have seen the cruel smile which distorted
Falconer's face as he went through the exquisitely beautiful hall and
corridors to the luxurious room which had been allotted to him.
There was in the smile and the cold glitter of the eyes the kind of
look which the cat wears when it plays with a mouse.