“But you didn’t, eh?”
Again George resisted the temptation. “That’s something I keep to myself,” he said, and after a moment’s hesitation, he added gruffly, “Lay off, will you?”
“That’s all right,” Brant said quickly. “I guess that’s something no one would talk about.”
“Now you’re smart,” George returned, surprised at his own audacity.
At the street corner they paused..
“Well, you better take your money,” Brant said. There was a note of reluctance in his voice, but he held out the crumpled roll of notes willingly enough.
George hesitated; at the back of his mind, although he was loath to admit it, he knew he would not have had the nerve to have taken the money. He knew that Brant expected him to share it with him, and after a mental tussle, he took the notes, hurriedly counted ten from the roll, and offered them to Brant.
“Here,” he said, his face hot with embarrassment, “we’ll share on this. After all, you helped get them.”
“Fair enough,” Brant said, and took the notes, putting them in his pocket.
George was rather taken aback by this cool acceptance of what was rightly his.