Simon Lock reflected.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I will give you a hundred thousand in cash.’
‘Make it a quarter of a million,’ Raphael Craig affected to plead.
‘I will make it a quarter of a million,’ said Simon Lock, ‘though I am condoning a felony. I will give you the document and a quarter of a million in exchange for a cancellation of all the La Princesse contracts. That is a clear and business-like offer.’
‘It is,’ said Craig. ‘And I refuse it.’
‘You want more? I decline to give it.’
‘I don’t want more. If you offered me ten millions I wouldn’t accept it.’
‘You prefer to go to prison? You prefer that I should give the document to the police?’
‘I care not,’ said Craig. ‘I shall be perfectly content to end my days in prison. I have ruined you, Simon Lock.’ He jumped up, and almost shouted, ‘I have ruined you, Simon Lock, and I can die happy—whether in prison or out of it makes no matter. In four days hence the contracts must be fulfilled—you must deliver the shares, or you are a ruined man. And you cannot deliver the shares. I have seen to that. Let happen what may, the contracts are in safe hands. You will have noticed that my name does not appear on them, and you are ruined. You are ruined, Simon, you are ruined—unless I choose to be merciful.’
He spoke the last words in low, deliberate tones, quite different from the rest of the speech, and this change evidently puzzled Simon Lock, who was now undecided whether still to maintain a peaceful attitude or to threaten and bluster.