All this appeared to Conway so eminently reasonable that he gazed at Barnard with considerably greater interest, and even – though it was perhaps odd at such a moment – a touch of genuine appreciation. It was curious to think of that heavy, fleshy, good-humored, rather paternal looking man as the world’s hugest swindler. He looked far more the type that, with a little extra education, would have made a popular headmaster of a prep school. Behind his joviality there were signs of recent strains and worries, but that did not mean that the joviality was forced. He obviously was what he looked – a “good fellow” in the world’s sense, by nature a lamb and only by profession a shark.
Conway said: “Yes, that’s very much the best thing, I’m certain.”
Then Barnard laughed. It was as if he possessed even deeper reserves of good humor which he could only now draw upon. “Gosh, but it’s mighty queer,” he exclaimed, spreading himself in his chair. “The whole darned business, I mean. Right across Europe, and on through Turkey and Persia to that little one-horse burg! Police after me all the time, mind you – they nearly got me in Vienna! It’s pretty exciting at first, being chased, but it gets on your nerves after a bit. I got a good rest at Baskul, though – I thought I’d be safe in the midst of a revolution.”
“And so you were,” said Conway with a slight smile, “except from bullets.”
“Yeah, and that’s what bothered me at the finish. I can tell you it was a mighty hard choice – whether to stay in Baskul and get plugged, or accept a trip in your Government’s aeroplane and find the bracelets waiting at the other end. I wasn’t exactly keen to do either.”
“I remember you weren’t.”
Barnard laughed again. “Well, that’s how it was, and you can figure it out for yourself that the change of plan which brought me here don’t worry me an awful lot. It’s a first-class mystery, but, speaking personally, there couldn’t have been a better one. It isn’t my way to grumble as long as I’m satisfied.”
Conway’s smile became more definitely cordial. “A very sensible attitude, though I think you rather overdid it. We were all beginning to wonder how you managed to be so contented.”
“Well, I was contented. This ain’t a bad place, when you get used to it. The air’s a bit snappy at first, but you can’t have everything. And it’s nice and quiet for a change. Every fall I go down to Palm Beach for a rest cure, but they don’t give you it, those places – you’re in the racket just the same. But here I guess I’m having just what the doctor ordered, and it certainly feels grand to me. I’m on a different diet, I can’t look at the tape, and my broker can’t get me on the telephone.”
“I daresay he wishes he could.”
“Sure. There’ll be a tidy-sized mess to clear up, and I know it.”
He said this with such simplicity that Conway could not help responding: “I’m not much of an authority on what people call high finance.”
It was a lead, and the American accepted it without the slightest reluctance. “High finance,” he said, “is mostly a lot of bunk.”
“So I’ve often suspected.”
“Look here, Conway, I’ll put it like this. A feller does what he’s been doing for years, and what lots of other fellers have been doing, and suddenly the market goes against him. He can’t help it, but he braces up and waits for the turn. But somehow the turn don’t come as it always used to, and when he’s lost ten million dollars or so he reads in some paper that a Swede professor thinks it’s the end of the world. Now I ask you, does that sort of thing help markets? Of course, it gives him a bit of a shock, but he still can’t help it. And there he is till the cops come – if he waits for ’em. I didn’t.”
“You claim it was all just a run of bad luck, then?”
“Well, I certainly had a large packet.”
“You also had other people’s money,” put in Mallinson sharply.
“Yeah, I did. And why? Because they all wanted something for nothing and hadn’t the brains to get it for themselves.”
“I don’t agree. It was because they trusted you and thought their money was safe.”
“Well, it wasn’t safe. It couldn’t be. There isn’t safety anywhere, and those who thought there was were like a lot of saps trying to hide under an umbrella in a typhoon.”
Conway said pacifyingly: “Well, we’ll all admit you couldn’t help the typhoon.”
“I couldn’t even pretend to help it – any more than you could help what happened after we left Baskul. The same thing struck me then as I watched you in the aeroplane keeping dead calm while Mallinson here had the fidgets. You knew you couldn’t do anything about it, and you weren’t caring two hoots. Just like I felt myself when the crash came.”
“That’s nonsense!” cried Mallinson. “Anyone can help swindling. It’s a matter of playing the game according to the rules.”
“Which is a darned difficult thing to do when the whole game’s going to pieces. Besides, there isn’t a soul in the world who knows what the rules are. All the professors of Harvard and Yale couldn’t tell you ’em.”
Mallinson replied rather scornfully: “I’m referring to a few quite simple rules of everyday conduct.”
“Then I guess your everyday conduct doesn’t include managing trust companies.”
Conway made haste to intervene. “We’d better not argue. I don’t object in the least to the comparison between your affairs and mine. No doubt we’ve all been flying blind lately, both literally and in other ways. But we’re here now, that’s the important thing, and I agree with you that we could easily have had more to grumble about. It’s curious, when you come to think about it, that out of four people picked up by chance and kidnaped a thousand miles, three should be able to find some consolation in the business. You want a rest-cure and a hiding place; Miss Brinklow feels a call to evangelize the heathen Tibetan.”