A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

12 A QUEER RACE. «Thank you,” he gasped. ‘*"Tis a sudden faintness. It must be the heat of the room, I think. A—a curious sketch this! Where—where did you get it?” “‘T drew it, Mr. Brandyman—/rom information I re- ceed.” “¢ Really!’—looking at it again; ‘‘I did not think you were so clever, Mr. Erle, and—and—what can I do for you, Mr. Hrle?” ‘‘ Nothing at all. Only, with your permission, I should just like to give you a hint.” : ‘© Of course—certainly—I am sure—yes—what is it?” returned Mr. Brandyman, a little incoherently. ‘©Well, if I were you, I would not send round for that check. We are a young company, and don’t want litiga- tion; but Pe «TY will think about it, Mr. Erle. I will speak to my partner, and think about it. And this sketch—you can, perhaps, leave it with me. I should not like—I mean I should like to keep if, if you will let me. It is so very curious.” ‘By all means. Keep it as a memento of our inter- view, Mr. Brandyman—and of the Niobe.” And then I bade him good-bye, and returned to the office in the full assurance that the twenty thousand pound check would never be sent for. ‘True, I had no evidence of the barratry worth mentioning—from a legal point of view—-but conscience makes cowards of us all. Mr. Brandyman gauged our knowledge of the facts by his own fears. He believed, too, though I had not said so, that we should resist payment of the claim; and as I could well see, he dreaded the scandal of a lawsuit, involving a criminal charge, as much as we dreaded litigation and heavy law expenses. The Board fully approved of what I had done, and I re- ceived many compliments on my smartness. Thad saved the Oriental and Occidental from serious danger, and given it a. new chance of life; which 1s another way of say- ing that | had saved the directors a good deal of money, for as all were shareholders, the failure of the company would have brought them both loss and discredit. A few days later T’om Bolsover called at the office to tell me (what I knew already) that the Pin : (E(o)/ AA) (€ JOO KS |