"
"And how does your stock hold?"
"I don't know," Trent said. "I only landed yesterday. I'm pretty
certain though that there's no market for the whole of Da Souza's
holding."
"He has a large interest, then?"
"A very large one," Trent answered drily.
"I should like," Francis said, "to understand this matter properly.
As a matter of fact I suppose that Monty is entitled to half the
purchase-money you received for the Company.
Trent assented.
"It isn't that I grudge him that," he said, "although, with the
other financial enterprises I have gone into, I don't know how I
should raise half a million of money to pay him off. But don't
you see my sale of the charter to the Company is itself, Monty being
alive, an illegal act. The title will be wrong, and the whole
affair might drift into Chancery, just when a vigorous policy is
required to make the venture a success. If Monty were here and in
his right mind, I think we could come to terms, but, when I saw him
last at any rate, he was quite incapable, and he might become a tool
to anything. The Bears might get hold of him and ruin us all. In
short, it's a beastly mess!"
Francis looked at him keenly.
"What do you expect me to do?" he asked.
"I have no right to expect anything," Trent said.
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