"Which is to say, that when the loan company sells the stock the Great Southern Railway may acquire, even on the open market, for five thousand pounds, a parcel of shares for which your friend Sanderson paid a hundred thousand pounds. Of course, the obliteration of Oaklands Junction makes your railway merely two parallel streaks of useless iron, beginning in an empty and pawned town and ending in open fields, where even the goods trains on the main line go by without stopping. Well, that's the most admirable piece of business I've known done in a year!"
"It seems to please you, Lord Stranleigh."
"Please me! How could it do otherwise? The man at the head of the Great Southern knows his business and isn't over-scrupulous. He had to deal with a stubborn, incompetent old duffer who wouldn't sell, and so he eliminated him. You are a sufferer merely because, like the good dog Tray, you fell into bad company. I suppose you think you've seen the end of this stratagem?"
"They can't hurt us any further?"
"My dear boy, don't you know they've determined to grab your new town of Gorham-on-Sea, otherwise they never would have countenanced the payment of twenty-six thousand pounds for stock that at any moment they can render worthless, as they have done. This loan company after due notice—I suppose you've had notice?"
"Yes, I have."
