Part 5 (1/2)
If he had been looking at his hostess then, an action which he was strenuously avoiding, he might have seen a curious spasm pa.s.s over her face. Mrs. Windlebird turned very pale and sat down suddenly in the chair which Roland had vacated at the beginning of their conversation.
She lay back in it with her eyes closed. She looked tired and defeated.
Roland took the paper mechanically. He wanted it as a diversion to the conversation merely, for his interest in the doings of Surrey and Yorks.h.i.+re had waned to the point of complete indifference in compet.i.tion with Mrs. Windlebird's news.
Equally mechanically he unfolded it and glanced at front page; and, as he did do, a flaring explosion of headlines smote his eye.
Out of the explosion emerged the word ”WILD-CATS”.
”Why!” he exclaimed. ”There's columns about Wild-cats on the front page here!”
”Yes?” Mrs. Windlebird's voice sounded strangely dull and toneless. Her eyes were still closed.
Roland took in the headlines with starting eyes.
THE WILD-CAT REEF GOLD-MINE
ANOTHER KLONDIKE
FRENZIED SCENES ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE
BROKERS FIGHT FOR SHARES
RECORD BOOM
UNPRECEDENTED RISE IN PRICES
Shorn of all superfluous adjectives and general journalistic exuberance, what the paper had to announce to its readers was this:
The ”special commissioner” sent out by The _Financial Argus_ to make an exhaustive examination of the Wild-cat Reef Mine--with the amiable view, no doubt, of exploding Mr. Geoffrey Windlebird once and for all with the confiding British public--has found, to his unbounded astonishment, that there are vast quant.i.ties of gold in the mine.
The discovery of the new reef, the largest and richest, it is stated, since the famous Mount Morgan, occurred with dramatic appropriateness on the very day of his arrival. We need scarcely remind our readers that, until that moment, Wild-cat Reef shares had reached a very low figure, and only a few optimists retained their faith in the mine. As the largest holder, Mr. Windlebird is to be heartily congratulated on this new addition to his fortune.
The publication of the expert's report in The _Financial Argus_ has resulted in a boom in Wild-cats, the like of which can seldom have been seen on the Stock Exchange. From something like one s.h.i.+lling and sixpence per bundle the one pound shares have gone up to nearly ten pounds a share, and even at this latter figure people were literally fighting to secure them.
The world swam about Roland. He was stupefied and even terrified. The very atmosphere seemed foggy. So far as his reeling brain was capable of thought, he figured that he was now worth about two hundred thousand pounds.
”Oh, Mrs. Windlebird,” he cried, ”It's all right after all.”
Mrs. Windlebird sat back in her chair without answering.
”It's all right for every one,” screamed Roland joyfully. ”Why, if I've made a couple of hundred thousand, what must Mr. Windlebird have netted.
It says here that he is the largest holder. He must have pulled off the biggest thing of his life.”
He thought for a moment.
”The chap I'm sorry for,” he said meditatively, ”is Mr. Windlebird's pal. You know. The fellow whom Mr. Windlebird persuaded to sell all his shares to me.”
A faint moan escaped from his hostess's pale lips. Roland did not hear it. He was reading the cricket news.