‘It means I am going to show what can be done with capital and brains combined. Take this and pay your just debts at once, sir.’
Marston drew a hundred-pound note from his pocket-book and handed it to Brooks. Mr. Brooks took it mechanically.
‘I’m blest if I see what you’re up to now,’ he said.
‘That shows how much your firm stood in need of new blood. Send this note and the few shillings expenses, and then Grigg and Limpet will have recovered the debt.’
‘And they’ll hand the money over to you,’ said Brooks. ‘I don’t see where the pull comes in.’
‘Brooks, I’ve a great respect for you as a man of business, but, upon my word, your faculties are beginning to fail. Grigg and Limpet will remit this money to me by cheque.’
‘Oh!’
That was all Mr. Brooks said, but it contained a whole dictionary of words. It was an ‘Oh!’ of sudden revelation, of admiration, of ecstasy, and of triumph.
Marston watched the effect of his brilliant idea on his companion with pleasure. It was his desire to dazzle all men with whom he came into contact, to stand a head and shoulders above his fellows. Now that he had what he was pleased to call ‘a fair start,’ his ambition was boundless.
His feet, at present, were on lowly stepping-stones; as he progressed, and the field of fortune opened out before him in a series of golden vistas, he would spurn the humble instruments of his advancement from him, and reign unquestioned and unchallenged in a new world.