human
Well, he said,
gpt
I believe you told me you had got quite a few dollars together not very long ago,
human
I did, but very few of them are mine. Somehow I get to know everybody worth knowing in the province, and now and then folks with dollars to spare for a venture hand them me to put into a deal.
gpt
On the principle that one has to take his chances in this country?
human
Well, he said,
gpt
I never go back upon a partner, anyway, and when we make a deal the other folks are quite at liberty to keep their eyes on me. They know the rules of the game, and if they don't always get the value they expected they most usually lie low and sell out to another man instead of blaming me. It pays their way better than crying down their bargain. Still, I have started off mills and wild-cat mines that turned out well, and went on coining dollars for everybody.
human
Which was no doubt a cause of satisfaction to you!
gpt
No, sir, he said.
human
I felt sorry ever after I hadn't kept them.
gpt
Industrial speculations in this province remind me of a game we have in England. Perhaps you have seen it, he said, reflectively.
human
You bet a shilling or half-a-crown that when you lift up a thimble you will find a pea you have seen a man place under it. It is not very often that you accomplish it. Still, in that case--there is--a pea.
gpt
And there's nothing but low-grade ore in the Dayspring? Now, nobody ever quite knows what he will find in a mine if he lays out enough dollars looking for it.
human
That, said Brooke, drily,
gpt
The point is that we're playing it off on Devine, the man who robbed you, and has once or twice put his foot on me. I was considerably flattened when I crawled from under. He's a big man and he puts it down heavy.
human
Still, I feel it's necessary to draw the line at a swindle.
gpt
Call it the game with the pea and thimble. Devine has got a notion there's something in the mine, and I don't know any reason why I shouldn't humor him. He's quite often right, you see.
human
It does not affect the point, but are you quite sure he isn't right now?
gpt
You mean that Allonby may be?
human
I shouldn't consider it quite out of the question.
gpt
Allonby's a whisky-skin, and I keep him because he's cheap and it's a charity. Everybody knows that story of his, and he only trots it out when he has got a good bottle of old rye into him. At most other times he's quite sensible. Anyway, Devine doesn't want the mine to keep. He has to get a working group with a certain output and assays that look well all round before he floats it off on the English market. If he knew I was quietly dumping that ore in I'm not quite sure it would rile him.