You never did. No, nor no one else, 'cep' he spent
the whole of his life in the foolish house."
"Some one betrayed 'em--for ten thousand dollars?"
Bud's question came with a sharp edge to it.
"Don't guess 'betray's' the word, mister. It was jest a commercial
transaction. You jest need to get a right understanding of them
things. When I got something to sell, an' you're yearnin' to dope out
the dollars for it--say ten thousand of 'em--why, I don't guess there's
anything else to it but a straight business proposition."
"So you netted the ten thousand?" enquired Bud, in his simplest fashion.
"Me? Gee! Say, if them ten thousand dollars had wafted my way I'd
have set this city crazy drunk fer a week. No, sir," he added, with a
coldly gloomy shake of the head. "That's jest about the pain I'm
sufferin' right now. Some mighty slick aleck's helped hisself to them
dollars, an' I don't know who--nor does anybody else, 'cep' him who
paid 'em."
Bud realized the man's shameless earnestness, but passed it by.
Pages:
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163