"Oh, hang the ten shillings!" interrupted Jack. "I tell you I haven't got all our stakes paid over to me yet, and so I can't pay you, and that's flat."
"Then I may as well go and give myself up to the police at once," groaned Tom, stopping short in his walk, as though he contemplated throwing himself into the arms of the next policeman who came along.
The look of despair in his face alarmed Jack, and thrusting one hand into his pocket he drew Tom along with the other, for fear of attracting attention.
"Look here," he said, "you shall have the ten shillings. I have got that much for you, only I was going to ask you to lend it to me for a day or two, just to give me a chance to turn a penny or two more before Christmas. But, of course, if you must have it, you must," and as he spoke, he reluctantly drew from his pocket a half-sovereign, and gave it to Tom.
But he looked surprised when Tom's hand closed upon the coin.
"I thought you would be sure to let me have it for a day or two," he said in a tone of reproach.
"So I would," replied Tom, "if it was my own. But, look here, it may be too late now to put that back without being found out. Just as I was coming away to-night, I heard that the desk boy was coming back to-morrow, and if he comes, how am I to get that back and entered in the book. And if it isn't entered, the bill will be sent in again soon, and then there is my name on the receipt and I shall be clean bowled out over it."
"I suppose you must have it then," said Jack rather ruefully, but still looking as though he thought Tom ought not to take it.
But Tom took care to put it safe into an inside pocket, and when he had buttoned up his coat again he said, "When can I have the rest, Jack?"
"The rest?" repeated the friend who had been so profuse in his assurances that all racing money was paid the moment the race was settled. "What do you mean by the rest?"