Whether it was an obsession of her mind, or merely
part of her clever scheme, I could not make out. I noted,
however, that when she spoke of Templeton it was in a studied,
impersonal way, and that she was at pains to lay the blame for
the governmental interference rather on the rival mine-owners.
It quite surprised me when I found from the directory that
Vanderdyke's office was on the floor below in the same building.
Like Mrs. Ralston's, it was open, but not doing business, pending
the investigation by the Post-Office Department.
Vanderdyke was a type of which I had seen many before. Well
dressed to the extreme, he displayed all those evidences of
prosperity which are the stock in trade of the man with
securities to sell. He grasped my hand when I told him I was
going to present the other side of the post-office cases and held
it between both of his as if he had known me all his life. Only
the fact that he had never seen me before prevented his calling
me by my first name. I took mental note of his stock of
jewellery, the pin in his tie that might almost have been the
Hope diamond, the heavy watch chain across his chest, and a very
brilliant seal ring of lapis lazuli on the hand that grasped
mine. He saw me looking at it and smiled.
"My dear fellow, we have deposits of that stuff that would make a
fortune if we could get the machinery to get at it.
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