“The reporter of the Times was able to obtain the following particulars of this wonderful property from the secretary: 

“’A forty-stamp mill has been in operation on the property since June last.  The mill yielded in June, above expenses, L17,000 and 15 shillings; in July, L18,000 and 5 shillings.  The ore already developed above the tunnel level is sufficient to insure the running of the present works to their full capacity for five years to come.  The ore on the tunnel level is equal to any in the mine, and the ore chute has been demonstrated by exploration on the tunnel level to be at least 630 feet in length, with an average width of 16 feet.  The tunnel cuts the mine at a depth of 500 feet.  The office of the company in London is No. ——­, ——­ Street.  The officers are John Browning, president; James Sedgwick, treasurer; Hugh McGregor, secretary; and these, with Thomas Jordan, make up the directory of the company.’”

When, next morning, Jenvie, Hamlin and Stetson read the above in the Times, they were filled with consternation.

“I feared that man Sedgwick from the first,” said Jenvie.  “Our first account of him, that ‘he must be a prize-fighter,’ was true.  He has knocked us out, and he has made no more noise about it than does a bull-dog when he takes a pig by the ear.”

“What are we to do?” asked Hamlin.

“We must take in enough stock to cover our shortage at once,” said Jenvie, “even if we have to pay L1 per share for it.”

So a messenger was sent to the office of the broker through which the stock had been shorted, to buy at any price up to L1.

He returned with the information that the stock could be had, but the price was L6 per share.

Then the three men realized for the first time the trap which had been set for them, and how fatal had been its spring.  The messenger was at once sent out again, this time to the office of the company.  He found the secretary, who referred him to the ——­ Bank, from which the dividends were to be paid.  There he found stock for sale, but the price demanded was L6 per share.

He returned home and made his report.  The three men gazed at each other with blank looks of despair.

“Thirty thousand shares at L6 will take all we have,” said Hamlin.

“And I shorted 10,000 shares besides,” said Jenvie.

“So did I,” said Hamlin.

“So did I,” said Stetson.

“It seems clear enough that we are absolutely ruined,” said Hamlin.

“I wonder what has become of that Portuguese, Emanuel,” said Hamlin.

At that moment he entered the office.  He looked like the picture of despair.  He broke out with:  “It is awful!  I have just heard ze truth.  It was that American who did it.  When you thought last year that he had gone to America, he, with another American, had gone to Africa.

“They found ze mine.  They found a way out from it by going in the opposite direction from which they came.  Sedgwick went by Australia to San Francisco, and ordered a forty-stamp mill.  The other American remained, and opened the mine by a tunnel.  Sedgwick came back this way, and, left here to meet the mill at Port Natal.