Chapter 12 - Page 2

can name your own price for it."

"My dear sir," the engineer replied, taking up his visitor's card
again and gazing at it hard with a certain inquiring scrutiny, "if
it's business, and business of an important character, of course I
need hardly say I'm very glad to attend to you. There are so many
people who come bothering me for nothing, don't you know--charitable
appeals or what not--that I'm obliged to make a hard and fast rule
about interviews. But if it's business you mean, I'm your man at once.
I live for public works. Go ahead. I'm all attention."

He wheeled round in his revolving chair, and faced Tyrrel in an
attitude of sharp practical eagerness. His eye was all alert. It was
clear, the man was keen on every passing chance of a stray hundred or
two extra. His keenness disconcerted the conscientious and idealistic
Cornishman. For a second or two Tyrrel debated how to open fire upon
so unwonted an enemy. At last he began, stammering, "I've a friend who
has made a design for the Wharfedale Viaduct."

"Exactly," Erasmus Walker answered, pouncing down upon him like a
hawk. "And I've made one too. And as mine's in the field, why, your
friend's is waste paper."

His sharpness half silenced Tyrrel. But with an effort the younger man
went on, in spite of interruption. "That's precisely what I've come
about," he said; "I know that already. If only you'll have patience
and hear me out while I unfold my plan, you'll find what I have to
propose is all to your own interest. I'm prepared to pay well for the
arrangement I ask. Will you name your own price for half an hour's
conversation, and then listen to me straight on and without further
interruption?"

Erasmus Walker glanced back at him with those keen ferret-like eyes of
his. "Why, certainly," he answered; "I'll listen if you wish. We'll
treat it as a consultation. My fees for consultation depend, of
course, upon the nature of the subject on which advice is asked. But
you'll pay well, you say, for the scheme you propose. Now, this is
business. Therefore, we must be business-like. So first, what
guarantee have I of your means and solvency? I don't deal with men of
straw. Are you known in the City?" He jerked out his sentences as if
words were extorted from him at so much per thousand.

"I am not," Tyrrel answered, quietly; "but I gave you my card, and you
can see from it who I am--Walter Tyrrel of Penmorgan Manor. I'm a
landed proprietor, with a good estate in Cornwall. And I'm prepared to
risk--well, a large part of my property in the business I propose to
you, without any corresponding risk on your part. In plain words, I'm