“It is extremely soon.”
“No time is to be lost. Will you do it?”
“Five hundred dollars—the amount does not to me appear a sufficient sum. Your generosity should increase it when you apprehend the trouble which may after it occur. If I should be placed in the arrest and prevented from my engagement at the theatre fulfilling it would to me be a misfortune.”
“There is no danger of anything of the sort. Can you break a man’s leg?”
This seemed to be an afterthought on the part of Fillmore.
“It is in no degree a difficult accomplishment to obtain, distinguished sir.”
“Then that’s what I want—that’s what I want!” cried Fillmore. “A man can’t walk into church to be married with a broken leg.”
“The remuneration should be exceedingly larger, accomplished sir. For an arm five hundred is extremely insufficient. For a leg one thousand would be the smallest amount I could humbly accept.”
Fillmore thought a moment. He did not have a thousand dollars. In his pocket there was something more than six hundred, and five hundred of this he had obtained by skillfully raising a check given him by his mother.
“I’ll go you!” he suddenly cried. “A thousand dollars if you break the man’s leg.”