Labour
was what he asked, steady, dogged toil; and his only regret was that
he could not work with his hands in the open air, at some day-long
employment followed by hunger and weariness and dreamless sleep.
The partner whose name he did not wish to mention was John Jacks.
Very soon after learning the result to the young man of Jerome
Otway's death (the knowledge came in an indirect way half a year
later), Mr. Jacks wrote to Piers a letter implying what he knew, and
made offer of a certain capital towards the proposed business. Piers
did not at once accept the offer, for difficulties had arisen on the
side of his friend Moncharmont, who, on Otway's announcement of
inability to carry out the scheme they had formed together, turned
in another direction. A year passed; John Jacks again wrote; and,
Moncharmont's other projects having come to nothing, the friends
decided at length to revert to their original plan, with the
difference that a third partner supplied capital equal to that which
Moncharmont himself put into the venture. The arrangement was
strictly business-like; John Jacks, for all his kindliness, had no
belief in anything else where money was concerned, and Piers Otway
would not have listened to any other sort of suggestion. Piers put
into the affair only his brains, his vigour, and his experience; he
was to reap no reward but that fairly resulting from the exercise of
these qualities.
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