We
wish now to treat you with the utmost confidence. We wish to lay our
whole scheme before you."
"I don't know what you mean," Burton declared, a little wearily. "You
want one of my beans, for which you offered a certain sum of money. I
am sorry. I would give you one if I could, but I cannot spare it. They
are all that stand between me and a relapse into a state of being which
I shudder to contemplate. Need we discuss it any further? I think, if
you do not mind--"
He half rose to his feet, his eyes were searching the shadows of the
garden. The professor pulled him down.
"Be reasonable, Mr. Burton--be reasonable," he begged. "Listen to what
Mr. Bomford has to say."
Mr. Bomford cleared his throat, scratched his chin for a moment
thoughtfully, and half emptied his glass of claret.
"Our scheme, my young friend," He said condescendingly, "is worthy even
of your consideration. You are, I understand, gifted with some powers
of observation which you have turned to lucrative account. It has
naturally occurred to you, then, in your studies of life, that the
greatest accumulations of wealth which have taken place during the
present generation have come entirely through discoveries, which either
nominally or actually have affected the personal well-being of the
individual.
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