A snake that sees its
quarry edging inch by inch toward the fangs of death could not have had
a more exultant, triumphant look shoot from its treacherous eyes.
"'You will be a man,' said he; 'you will listen to reason.' He uttered
these words not as a query, but as an assertion of fact.
"'I shall do as I have said,' was my reply, and I walked toward the
door.
"'But you do not mean to say that you refuse to become a partner?' he
ejaculated in amazement.
"'That is just what I mean. I tell you once for all that I will not be a
party to such crimes as you propose to commit.' "'Then I warn you, young
man,' he thundered, losing his self control, 'that if you attempt to
thwart me in my business I shall make it uncomfortable for you in this
city.
"'Yes, I tell you now once for all, that you will find me the most
unmerciful enemy that was ever known. I have too much at stake to let a
fool of a man upset me.
"'Do you think that the world will credit the utterances of a nobody as
against mine? Why, you will be lodged in an insane asylum. I shall have
that matter fixed at once.
"'By the way, where are the bonds that I entrusted to your care last
week?'
"'What bonds?' I demanded hotly. For even then I saw the purport of the
question.
"'What bonds? Ah, that will not satisfy a jury.'
"And the banker chuckled at the thought that he had struck upon the
proper weapon with which to crush me.
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