Part 46 (1/2)
”Exactly so.”
”Sir! Do you mean to say that you _know_ she was not lost?”
”Precisely so.”
”By ----! Sir, you have been making a merit of this very thing.”
”True, but policy, policy! You will recollect you were not in a particularly amiable mood when I had the honor to introduce myself this morning. It was necessary to conciliate you, and my plan succeeded admirably. Besides, I blowed up the steamer with the intention of serving you, and I ought to have the credit of my good intentions!”
”And a pretty mess you have made of it!”
”Did the best that could be done, under the circ.u.mstances.”
”The game is up! I may as well hang myself, at once.”
”The very worst thing you could possibly do. A long life of happiness and usefulness is yet before you, provided you follow my advice.”
”Your advice!” sneered Jaspar.
”I shall have the pleasure of convincing you that my advice will be the best that could possibly be given to a man in your condition.”
”The girl is alive, is she?” muttered Jaspar, heedless of the smooth words of his companion.
”Alive and well; and, moreover, is close at hand.”
”The devil, she is! And you have been dallying around me all day without opening your mouth.”
”But remember, sir, you had another affair on your hands.”
”What avail to get that miserable overseer out of the way, when the girl herself is at hand?”
”One thing at a time. That excellent old man, Dr. Franklin, always advised this method. The overseer is safe; now turn we to other matters.”
”Well, what shall be done?” said Jaspar, rising suddenly and paying his devoir to the brandy-bottle.
”I will tell you,” replied the attorney, rising from his chair and coolly imitating Jaspar's example at the bottle. Then throwing himself lazily upon the sofa--”I will tell you. The case is not desperate yet.
How much is the amount of the old colonel's property?”
”How, sir! What mean you?”
”Favor me with an answer,” replied the attorney, with admirable _sang-froid_, as he drew from his pocket a cigar-case, and, taking therefrom a cigar, proceeded to light it with a patent vesuvian.
Politely tendering the case to Jaspar, who rudely declined the courtesy, he continued, ”It is necessary to our further progress that I have this information.”
”Well, perhaps he was worth four or five hundred thousand. What then?”
replied Jaspar, doggedly.
”No more? Surely, you forget. His city property was worth more than double that sum.”
”No more, by Heavens!” said Jaspar.