“Martin!” he exclaimed, in no affected surprise.  “Is it possible?”

“Ah, Jasper!  How are you?  Right glad to get sight of your face again!” said the other familiarly, as he grasped the merchant’s passive hand, and squeezed it until the joints cracked.

“When did you arrive in the city?” returned Jasper, as he reached his visitor a chair.  He did not speak with much warmth; and yet there was an effort to be at ease and cordial.

“Some two hours ago,” said Martin, in whose face was already beginning to gather a few lines in token of the sober thoughts that lay beneath his assumed smiling exterior.

“From which direction did you come?”

“West.  I’m from the Upper Mississippi.”

“Ah!”

“I went to Galena some five or six months ago; and have since been actively engaged in lead-mining.  A great business that, Mr. Jasper.”

“Ah?” This “ah?” was particularly chilling.

“There are more rapid fortunes made at the lead-mines in the neighbourhood of Galena, at present, than in any part of the United States,” said Martin, approaching, by rapid advances, the subject nearest to his thoughts.

“You think so?” returned Jasper, with cold incredulity.

“I know so,” was the positive response.  “I could point you to a dozen men who have made their tens of thousands annually for the last five or ten years.”

“It is easy to talk about making tens of thousands, Martin; but the fact itself is a more difficult matter.”

“A fact is a fact, however, Mr. Jasper,” said the other.  “What is done, is done.”

“Of course.”

“It is a fact that money is made at the lead-mines, hand over fist,” continued Martin.  “Of this I am prepared to give you the strongest kind of evidence.”

“Why should you be so anxious to convince me of this fact?” returned the merchant.  “I have quite as many irons in the fire now as I can see to.”

“Ah!  That may be,” said Martin, forcing to his rather hard features a bland smile.  “But these new irons I will keep from burning.”

“It’s no use, Martin, to talk of lead-mines to me,” said Jasper firmly.  “I am spread out enough already.  Contraction, not expansion, is my present motto.  I’ve met with more than one heavy loss since I saw you.”

“Have you, indeed?  I’m sorry for that.  But a false card will turn up now and then, you know.  The game in the long run is sure.”

“We’re sure of nothing,” replied Jasper, with considerable feeling.

“I wouldn’t like to say that.  Of course, all plans will not succeed; for man’s judgment is far from possessing the virtue of infallibility.  But human reason would be a poor endowment, did it not lead us, in most cases, to right conclusions, if we are careful in our modes of using this high faculty.”

“The purpose of your visit to the East,” said Jasper, who understood perfectly the man with whom he was dealing, and, therefore, determined to know at once the length and breadth of what he was expected to do, “is, I presume, to enlist some capitalists here in a lead-mining speculation?”