“There are others, and of a very different order, in which I would own you the master,” said Repton. “But to our case. Suppose,—a mere supposition, if you like,—but suppose that it could be demonstrated to Mr. Merl that his claim will be not only resisted, but defeated; that the right on which he relies is valueless,—the deed not worth the stamps it bears; that this offer is made to avoid a publicity and exposure far more injurious to him than to those who now shrink from it. What think you then?”
“Simply that he'd not believe it! He'd say, and many others would say, 'If the right lay so incontestably with these others, they 'd not give some twenty thousand pounds to compromise what they could enforce for the mere cost of a trial.'”
“Mr. Massingbred, too, would perhaps take the same view of the transaction,” said Repton, half tartly.
“Not if Mr. Repton assured me that he backed the opposite opinion,” said Jack, politely.
“I thank you heartily for that speech,” said the old man, as he grasped the other's hand cordially; “you deserve, and shall have my fullest confidence.”
“May I ask,” said Jack, “if this offer to buy off Merl be made in the interest of the Martins, for otherwise I really see no great object, so far as they are concerned, in the change of mastery?”
“You'll have to take my word for that,” said Repton, “or rather, to take the part I assume in this transaction as the evidence of it; and now, as I see that you are satisfied, will you accept of the duty of this negotiation? Will you see and speak with Merl? Urge upon him all the arguments your own ingenuity will furnish, and when you come, if you should be so driven, to the coercive category, and that you want the siege artillery, then send for me. Depend upon it, it will be no brutum fulmen that I 'll bring up; nor will I, as Pelham said, fire with 'government powder.' My cannon shall be inscribed, like those of the old volunteers, independence or—”
At any other moment Jack might have smiled at the haughty air and martial stride of the old man, as, stimulated by his words, he paced the room; but there was a sincerity and a resolution about him that offered no scope for ridicule. His very features wore a look of intrepidity that bespoke the courage that animated him.
“Now, Massingbred,” said he, laying his hand on the young man's arm, “it is only because I am not free to tell another man's secret that I do not at once place you fully in possession of all I myself know of this transaction; but rely on it, you shall be informed on every point, and immediately after the issue of this negotiation with Merl, whatever be the result, you shall stand on the same footing with myself.”
“You cannot suppose that I exact this confidence?” began Jack.