“He thinks” said Trevethick, contemptuously.  “Is he ready to sink his own money in it?”

“It’s no good asking him that,” said Solomon, coolly, “because he’s got none.  But I have always found Stratum pretty correct in his judgment; and, as for me, I believe in Dunloppel.  The question is, shall I go on with it single-handed, or will you go shares?”

“If it’s so good a thing, why not keep it yourself, Sol?”

“Because my money is particularly well laid out at present, and I don’t want to shift it.”

“That’s just the case with mine,” said Trevethick, from behind the plan.

“I thought you might have five hundred pounds or so lying idle, that’s all,” returned the other.  “I’d give six per cent. for it just now.”

“Oh, that’s another thing.  Perhaps I have.  I’ll see about it.”

“If you could get it me at once, that would be half the battle,” urged Solomon.  “There are some good men at the mine whom I should not like to lose.  If I could send round to-night to tell them not to engage, themselves elsewhere, since they’re opening so many new pits just now, that would be a relief to my mind.”

“Very good; you may do that, then.  I’ll write for the money to-morrow.”

So blunt, straightforward, and exceedingly unpleasant a man as John Trevethick was, ought to have been the very incarnation of Truth, whereas that last observation of his was, to say the least of it, Jesuitical.  There was no occasion to write to any body for what he had got above stairs, locked up in his private strong-box.  But he did not wish all the world to know that, nor even his alter ego, Solomon Coe.

Trevethick, although a close-fisted fellow, was no miser in the vulgar sense.  He kept this vast sum at hand, partly because he had no confidence in ordinary securities, and partly because he wished to be in a position, at a moment’s notice, to accomplish his darling scheme.  If Carew should happen to change his mind, it would be because he was in want of ready money, and he would be in mad haste to get it.  His impatience on such occasions brooked no delay on the score of advantage; and the man that could offer him what he wanted, as it were, in his open hand, would be the financier he would favor in preference to a much less grasping accommodator, who might keep him waiting for a week.  It was not so much the tempting bait of ready money that caught the Squire as the fact of his wishes being obeyed upon the instant.  He had not been used to wait, and his pride revolted against it; and many a time had a usurer missed his mark by not understanding with how great a bashaw he had to deal in the person of Carew of Crompton.  Trevethick was aware of this, and indeed the chaplain had given him a hint to keep the proposed purchase-money within easy reach, in case the Squire’s mood might alter, or his necessities demand his consent to what Mr. Whymper honestly believed to be a very advantageous offer.