Happen you can see a bit of light.

Listen, now." Allerdyke, from long training in business habits, was a good teller of a plain and straightforward tale: Appleyard, for the same reason, was a good listener.

So one man talked, in low, earnest tones, checking off his points as he made them, taking care that he emphasized the principal items of his news and dwelt lightly on the connecting links, and the other listened in silence, keeping a concentrated attention and storing away the facts in his memory as they were duly marshalled before him.
For a good hour one brain gave out, and the other took in, and without waste of words.
It came to an end at last, and master looked at man.
"Well ?" said Allerdyke, after a silence that was full of meaning--"well ?" "Take some thinking about," answered Appleyard tersely.

"It's a big thing--a devilish clever thing, too.

There's one fact strikes me at once, though.