III-XIV

Gordon paid Valentine Simmons eighty-nine
thousand dollars for the latter's share
of the timber options they had held in common.
They were seated in the room in which Gordon
conducted his peculiar transactions. He turned
and placed Simmons' acknowledgment, the various
papers of the dissolved partnership, in the safe.

"That finishes all I had in Stenton," he observed.

Valentine Simmons made no immediate reply.
He was intent, with tightly-folded lips, on the cheque
in his hand. His shirt, as ever, was immaculately
starched, the blue button was childlike, bland; but
it was cold without, and hot in the room where they
sat, and the color on his cheeks resembled dabs of
vermilion on buffers of old white leather; the tufts
of hair above his ears had dwindled to mere cottony
scraps.

"Prompt and satisfactory," he said at last. "I
tell you, Gordon, you can see as far as another into a
transaction. Promises are of no account but value
received..." he held up the cheque, a strip of
pale orange paper, pinched between withered fingers.

[[329]]

p328 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p329w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p330

v?