"
"Oh, mine's a trifle compared with yours. Have you still the whole of
your money in Ferdinand's company?"
"Yes. I've been thinking of selling a few shares, by the way. As you
may suppose, I've been spending a good deal just lately--more than my
income."
"You mustn't sell just now, Peer. They're--I daresay you've seen that
they're down--below par, in fact."
"What--below par! No, I had no idea of that."
"Oh, only for the time being, of course. Just a temporary drop. There's
sure to be another run on them soon, and they'll go up again. But
the Khedive has the controlling interest, you know, and he's rather
a ticklish customer. Ferdinand is all for extension--wants to keep
on buying up new land--new desert, that is. Irrigation there's just a
question of power--that's how he looks at it. And of course the bigger
the scale of the work the cheaper the power will work out. But the
Khedive's holding back. It may be just a temporary whim--may be all
right again to-morrow. But you never know. And if you think Ferdinand's
the man to give in to a cranky Khedive, you're much mistaken. His idea
now is to raise all the capital he can lay hands on, and buy him out!
What do you say to that? Buy the Khedive clean out of the company. It's
a large order. And if I were you, old man, as soon as the shares go up
again a bit, I'd sell out some of my holding, and put the money into
something at home here. After all, there must be plenty of quite useful
things to be had here.
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