Part 44 (1/2)
”Look here, Phil. You're the biggest coward I ever met!”
”If you think so, suppose you do it yourself,” said Philip. ”That'll show whether you are a coward or not.”
”That's absurd. It wouldn't be in the family then. The bonds don't belong to my father. There wouldn't be any excuse for me.”
”You want me to do what you are unwilling to do.”
”You already explained why. Besides, I've no object in taking them. As for you, why they are part yours already; and, besides, you need the money you can raise out of them to pay your debts.”
”I haven't any debts, except to you.”
”So much the better for you,” answered Congreve, coolly. ”You won't have any one to pay except me.”
”I wish I'd never made your acquaintance,” said poor Philip.
”Very complimentary, upon my word!” replied Congreve, with a sneer. ”It strikes me that you have got as much pleasure out of the acquaintance as I.”
”I haven't got you into my debt.”
”It isn't my fault if I am a better player at cards than you. However, that's neither here nor there. I don't propose to play any more with you. I ought not to have let you run up such a score. Just pay that off, and I won't trouble you any more.”
”I've told you I can't pay you.”
”Except in one way, and that way is an easy enough one. Listen to reason, Phil,” he said, dropping his sneer. ”Don't you see it is going to benefit you as well as me? You'll have a good deal of money left for your own use, after paying me, provided you take two hundred-dollar bonds. It will be convenient to have fifty or sixty dollars in your pocket, eh?'
”Yes,” a.s.sented Philip, more cheerfully.
”Of course it will, and it will be fun to see Harry Gilbert hauled up for stealing them. Ho! ho! ho!”
Philip echoed the laughter. This phase of the transaction certainly did please him.
”If it can be brought about,” he said, doubtfully.
”Of course it can. Listen, and I'll tell you how. You can tell your father you saw Harry acting suspiciously near the house the evening it is done.”
”But the door would be locked.”
”You can unlock it, and leave it unlocked all night. It will be found so in the morning; and, even if the bonds are not immediately missed, the circ.u.mstance will be remembered.”
Philip's mind changed again. The plan looked more feasible and attractive as Congreve represented it.
”Well, I don't know but I'll try it,” he said.
”I thought you'd be sensible,” said Congreve, inwardly rejoiced. ”Now, let me give you one piece of advice.”
”What is that?”
”Strike while the iron's hot. If you want to know what that means, never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.”