CHAPTER XXIII
EBONY SAYS "THUMBS UP"
Tom Reade stared in frank amazement at the trembling man.
"Do you mean to insult me, Mr. Bascomb?" demanded the young engineer bluntly.
"Insult you? The fates forbid," replied Bascomb with a sickly grin.
"Reade, I don't dare offend you in any way."
"But you do insult me, sir, in believing that it would be possible for me to make any hostile use of whatever unpleasant knowledge I may possess against you."
"Do you mean to say that you wouldn't use the knowledge?" demanded the president of the Melliston Company.
"You're insulting me again, sir. Perhaps you are to be pardoned, Mr. Bascomb. You have been so long dancing to the fiddling of an Evarts that you don't realize how impossible it is for a gentleman to do a dishonorable thing."
"Then—-then I—-I can rely upon your silence?" demanded Mr. Bascomb, eagerly.
"I am sorry, sir, to think that you even think it necessary to ask me such a question," rejoined Reade gravely.