"Now as to the past," continued Lord Ferriby. "The works have been
going for more than three months, and the result has been uniformly
satisfactory----Eh?"
"Many deaths?" inquired White, stolidly repeating his question.
"Deaths? Ah--among the workers? Yes, to be sure. Perhaps Mr. von Holzen
can tell you better than I."
And his lordship bowed in what he took to be the foreign manner across
the table.
"Yes," replied Von Holzen, quietly, "there have, of course, been
deaths, but not so many as I anticipated. The majority of the men had,
as Mr. Cornish will tell you, death written on their faces when they
arrived at The Hague."
"They certainly looked seedy," admitted Tony.
"We will, I think, turn rather to the--eh--er--living," said Lord
Ferriby, turning over the papers in front of him with a slightly
reproachful countenance. He evidently thought it rather bad form of
White to pour cold water over his new whitewash. For Lord Ferriby's was
that charity which hopeth all things, and closeth her eye to practical
facts, if these be discouraging. "I have here the result of the three
months' work."
He looked at the papers with so condescending an air that it was quite
evident that, had he been a business man and not a lord, he would have
understood them at a glance. There was a short silence while he turned
over the closely written sheets with an air of approving interest.
"Yes," he said, as if during those moments he had run his eye up all
the column of figures and found them correct, "the result, as I say,
gentlemen, has been most satisfactory.
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