Part 1 (2/2)
”But man alive, I have been working at this thing for years. I have tested every link in the chain, if you will allow me to say so. I have faced every possible contingency. I have gone over the ground so often that I know every inch of the way. I have antic.i.p.ated every objection, every weakness, every flaw, and have provided against it. All I want now is a thousand pounds in hard cash, and in a year's time I shall be able to repay it ten-fold.”
”You hope so.”
”I am sure of it; as far as a man can be sure of anything in this stupid world. The more or less unpleasant contingency that you persist in looking at will never occur.”
”But it may occur,” Muller persisted.
”Well, if it does you will not suffer; and I shall be glad to hide myself and be at rest.”
”You say that now.”
”Do you doubt my courage or my honour?” Sterne demanded, sharply.
”No, I doubt neither,” Muller said, slowly; ”but the instinct of life is strong--especially in the young.”
”When a man has something to live for--some great purpose to achieve, or some proud ambition to realise, he naturally wants to live. But take away that something, and life is a squeezed orange which he is glad to fling away.”
”People still cling to life when they have nothing left to live for,”
Muller said, reflectively.
”Sentimentalists and cowards,” Sterne broke in, hastily. ”Men who have been robbed of their courage by priestly superst.i.tions. But you and I have thrown off the swaddling clothes in which we were reared. Your German philosophers have not reflected and written for nothing.”
”I am an Englishman,” Muller broke in, hastily.
”I do not dispute it for a moment,” Sterne said, with a laugh. ”But let us not get away from the subject we have in hand. The question is will you accommodate me or will you not?”
”If I do not you will curse me to-day,” Muller said, with a drawl; ”and if I do, you may curse me more bitterly eighteen months hence. So it seems to me it is a choice between two evils.”
”There you are mistaken,” Sterne replied. ”I certainly shall curse you if you refuse me, but if you become my friend to-day I shall never cease to bless you.”
”Not if you fail?”
”Why will you persist in harping on that one string? I shall not fail.
Failure is out of the reckoning. I am as certain of success as I am of my own existence.”
”'Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.'”
”Please, Muller, don't quote the Bible to me.”
”It is sound philosophy wherever it is taken from. Besides, the Bible is good literature.”
”So is Dante's 'Inferno.' But if you were dosed with it morning, noon and night, for the s.p.a.ce of fifteen or twenty years, you would be glad to have a little respite. But we are getting away again from the subject in hand. Let's stick to the one point till we've done with it. If you've made up your mind that you won't help me, say so.”
”My dear fellow, all that I've been anxious to do is to enable you, if possible, to realise all that such a contract implies.”
”Well, if I didn't realise it before, I do now. You've been very faithful.”
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