I will make it worth your while. Your
father's will--is not destroyed; let me go--and I will tell you
where it is."
"I will make no terms with you," I said.
"But what do you gain by refusing?" he cried. "You are only a
lieutenant; promotion is slow; money would help you on. You have
your revenge on me--and lose your property, for I vow I will tell
you nothing unless you let me go."
"I would not let you go for a king's ransom," I said. "The wrongs
you have done me are nothing; but for your villainy I should not be
a king's officer today. I could almost forgive you. But nothing in
the world could persuade me to forget the wrongs you have done to a
helpless woman--the indignities you put upon her, the villainous
designs you harbored against her. No, you have done your rascally
work--you shall take your wages."
He said no more then, but presently, when Cludde returned he made
an appeal to him.
"Dick," he said, "you and I are bound by long friendship--"
"Which you have killed," said Cludde, interrupting him.
"But you will not forget all the past--our school days, the merry
times we had then and after, all I have done with you, and for you.
For a dozen years we were as close as brothers; you won't turn
against me now?"
"I know, but--Lucy--'twas unpardonable," Cludde stammered in great
discomfort. "I'm not spotless--done things I am ashamed of--but you
carried things too far--you wanted to force her to marry you--"
"And do you think she will marry you now, you fool?" cried Vetch,
with a flash of his old fiery temper.
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