“I knew its strength.”

“Well, I must say—­but look here, let me walk the floor a little, my mind is getting into a sort of whirl, though you don’t seem disturbed any.  (Plainly this young fellow isn’t crazy; but as to his being remarkable —­well, really he amounts to that, and something over.) Now then, I believe I am beyond the reach of further astonishment.  Strike, and spare not.  What is your scheme?”

“To buy the wool crop—­deliverable in sixty days.”

“What, the whole of it?”

“The whole of it.”

“No, I was not quite out of the reach of surprises, after all.  Why, how you talk!  Do you know what our crop is going to foot up?”

“Two and a half million sterling—­maybe a little more.”

“Well, you’ve got your statistics right, any way.  Now, then, do you know what the margins would foot up, to buy it at sixty days?”

“The hundred thousand pounds I came here to get.”

“Right, once more.  Well, dear me, just to see what would happen, I wish you had the money.  And if you had it, what would you do with it?”

“I shall make two hundred thousand pounds out of it in sixty days.”

“You mean, of course, that you might make it if——­”

“I said ’shall’.”

“Yes, by George, you did say ‘shall’!  You are the most definite devil I ever saw, in the matter of language.  Dear, dear, dear, look here!  Definite speech means clarity of mind.  Upon my word I believe you’ve got what you believe to be a rational reason, for venturing into this house, an entire stranger, on this wild scheme of buying the wool crop of an entire colony on speculation.  Bring it out—­I am prepared—­acclimatized, if I may use the word.  Why would you buy the crop, and why would you make that sum out of it?  That is to say, what makes you think you——­”

“I don’t think—­I know.”

“Definite again.  How do you know?”

“Because France has declared war against Germany, and wool has gone up fourteen per cent. in London and is still rising.”

“Oh, in-deed?  Now then, I’ve got you!  Such a thunderbolt as you have just let fly ought to have made me jump out of my chair, but it didn’t stir me the least little bit, you see.  And for a very simple reason:  I have read the morning paper.  You can look at it if you want to.  The fastest ship in the service arrived at eleven o’clock last night, fifty days out from London.  All her news is printed here.  There are no war-clouds anywhere; and as for wool, why, it is the low-spiritedest commodity in the English market.  It is your turn to jump, now . . . .  Well, why, don’t you jump?  Why do you sit there in that placid fashion, when——­”

“Because I have later news.”

“Later news?  Oh, come—­later news than fifty days, brought steaming hot from London by the——­”

“My news is only ten days old.”

“Oh, Mun-chausen, hear the maniac talk!  Where did you get it?”