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“What could you offer me?''
"All manner of things. How much money?" Marner was watching him narrowly, but it was well disguised as a casual cheerfulness.
"I am interested also in safety, rather than quick profit," Monk said, ignoring the question. "I wouldn't care to lose what I have."
"Of course not, who would?" Marner spread his hands wide and shrugged expressively, but his eyes were fixed and blinkless as a snake's. "You want your money invested safely?"
"Oh, quite definitely," Monk agreed. "And since I know of many other gentlemen who are also interested in investment, I should wish to be certain that any recommendation I made was secure."
Manner's eyes flickered, then the lids came down to hide his thoughts. "Excellent," he said calmly. "I quite understand, Mr. Monk. Have you considered importing and exporting? Very nourishing trade; never fails."
"So I've heard." Monk nodded. "But is it safe?"
"Some is, some isn't. It is the skill of people like me to know the difference." His eyes were wide again, his hands folded across his paunch. "That is why you came here, instead of investing it yourself.''
"Tobacco?"
Marner's face did not change in the slightest.
"An excellent commodity." He nodded. "Excellent. I cannot see gentlemen giving up their pleasures, whatever the economic turns of life. As long as there are gentlemen, there will be a market for tobacco. And unless our climate changes beyond our wit to imagine"—he grinned and his body rocked with silent mirth at his own humor—"we will be unable to grow it, so must need import it. Have you any special company in mind?"
"Are you familiar with the market?" Monk asked, swallowing hard to contain his loathing of this man sitting here like a fat white spider in his well-furnished office, safe in his gray web of lies and facades. Only the poor flies like Latterly got caught—a«d perhaps Joscelin Grey.
"Of course," Marner replied complacently. "I know it well."
"You have dealt in it?"
"I have, frequently. I assure you, Mr. Monk, I know very well what I am doing."
"You would not be taken unaware and find yourself faced with a collapse?"
"Most certainly not." Marner looked at him as if he had let fall some vulgarity at the table.
"You are sure?" Monk pressed him.
"I am more than sure, my dear sir." Now he was quite pained. "I am positive."
"Good." Monk at last allowed the venom to flood into his voice. “That is what I thought. Then you will no doubt be able to tell me how the disaster occurred that ruined Major Joscelin Grey's investment in the same commodity. You were connected with it."
Marner's face paled and for a moment he was confused to find words.
"I—er—assure you, you need have no anxiety as to its happening again," he said, avoiding Monk's eyes, then looking very directly at him, to cover the lie of intent.
"That is good," Monk answered him coolly. "But hardly of more than the barest comfort now. It has cost two lives already. Was there much of your own money lost, Mr. Marner?"
"Much of mine?" Marner looked startled.
"I understand Major Grey lost a considerable sum?"
"Oh—no. No, you are misinformed." Marner shook his head and his white hair bounced over his ears. "The company did not precisely fail. Oh dear me no. It simply transferred its operation; it was taken over. If you are not a man of affairs, you could not be expected to understand. Business is highly complicated these days, Mr. Monk."
"It would seem so. And you say Major Gre
y did not lose a great deal of his own money? Can you substantiate that in any way?"
"I could, of course." The smug veils came over Mar-ner's eyes again. "But Major Grey's affairs are his own, of course, and I should not discuss his affairs with you, any more than I should dream of discussing yours with him. The essence of good business is discretion, sir." He smiled, pleased with himself, his composure at least in part regained.
"Naturally," Monk agreed. "But I am from the police, and am investigating Major Grey's murder, therefore I am in a different category from the merely inquisitive." He lowered his voice and it became peculiarly menacing. He saw Marner's face tighten. "And as a law-abiding man," he continued, "I am sure you will be only too happy to give me every assistance you can. I should like to see your records in the matter. Precisely how much did Major Grey lose, Mr. Marner, to the guinea, if you please?"
