I'll do just as
you please."
"You're very obliging."
"I'm willing enough to oblige, as I've always told you--at a price."
"Put a name to it; but don't forget you've had something on account.
Last night I gave you five hundred francs."
"Bah! I want a lot more than that, a thousand francs down and fifty
francs a day so long as I serve you. Do you agree to my terms?"
"My lord won't. He looks both sides of his money, and pays no fancy
prices for a pig in a poke."
"Then I'll take my pigs to another market. Suppose I let the Colonel
know what you've been at, trying to tamper with me. This hotel
wouldn't be big enough to hold him and your patron together."
"Well,"--I hesitated, not willing to appear too anxious,--"let's say,
just for argument's sake, that you got what you ask, or something near
it. I'm not in a position to promise it, no, not the half of it. But
we'll agree what you'd do for us in return?"
"Anything you chose to ask."
"Would you come over to us, belong to us body and soul? Think first of
my lord, put his interests before the Colonel's; tell us what the
Colonel's doing, his game from day to day, read his letters, and tell
us their contents; spy on his actions, watch him at every turn, his
comings and his goings; the houses he calls at, the people he meets,
every move he makes or has in view?"
"If I promise to do all that will you promise not to give me away?
You'll keep your own counsel and protect me from the Colonel? If he
got a whisper I was selling him I'd lose my place and he'd half kill
me into the bargain.
Pages:
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187