“You 're too young and too generous to have a double in you,” said he, after a long pause, in which it seemed as if he were scanning the other's nature; “and before we say any more, just tell me one thing. Did any one advise you to come here to-night?”
“Yes,” said Frank, boldly.
“It was that doctor; the man they call the agent,—wasn't it?”
“Yes,” replied the youth, in the same tone.
“Now, what has he against me?—what charge does he lay to me?”
“I know nothing about it,” said Frank; “but if our interview is only to consist in an examination of myself, the sooner it ends the better.”
“Don't you see what I'm at, sir?—don't you perceive that I only want to know your honor's feeling towards me, and whether what I 'm to say is to be laid up in your heart, or taken down in writing and made into an indictment.”
“My feeling towards you is easily told. If you be an honest man, and have any need of me, I 'll stand by you; if you be not an honest man, but the dishonesty only affects myself and my interests, show me anything that can warrant it, and I 'm ready to forgive you.”
The prisoner hung down his head, and for some minutes seemed deeply immersed in reflection.
“Mr. Dalton,” said he, drawing his chair closer to the bed, “I 'll make this business very short, and we need n't be wasting our time talking over what is honesty and what is roguery,—things every man has his own notions about, and that depend far more upon what he has in his pocket than what he feels in his heart I can do you a good turn; you can do me another. The service I can render you will make you a rich man, and put you at the head of your family, where you ought to be. All I ask in return is a free discharge from this jail, and money enough to go to America. There never was a better bargain for you! As for myself, I could make more of my secret if I liked; more, both in money—and—and in other ways.”