“What have you done with Annie Benson?”
“What have I done with her?” replied Benson threateningly. “I don’t know anything about her. She is nothing to me.”
How George Benson would have liked to have told the young fellow that he was the beneficiary to his uncle’s will, but he knew that the boy would find out differently, so he remained silent.
“What happened?” asked Nathans. “Did the old man give you the grand bounce, too?”
“Yes, but not for anything that I did, but because of that villain standing there. I suppose he thought that I would help find Miss Annie and bring her back to her home. Well, that’s what I came back for, Mr. Benson.”
Tom Cooper saw that he was putting the thorns into the other’s flesh, and kept on: “I am going to spend the rest of my days finding that girl.”
Benson walked close to him and looked into his face.
“I want to tell you something, Tom Cooper, you had better go back to sea, for if you don’t I can tell you that there won’t be much show for you if I once get my hands on you.”
“I’m not afraid of you, mister,” shouted Tom, snapping his fingers into George’s face.
“And, what’s more,” he added, “I have made up my mind that you are not playing fair with our little playmate of long ago, any more than you used to play fair when you stole money from her father’s pocket. But I am going to find her if it takes me all the rest of my life.”