"To be sure, no!" ironically. "What with falling safes, poisoned cigarettes, and so forth, I can readily see that you have my welfare at heart. What puzzled me was the suddenness with which these affectionate signs ceased."
"You're a man of heart," said Braine with genuine admiration. "These affectionate signs, as you call them, ceased because for the time being you ceased to be a menace. You have become that once more, and here you are!"
"And what are you going to do with me now that you have got me?"
"There will be two courses." Braine reached into a drawer and drew out a thick roll of bills. "There are here something like $5,000."
"Quite a tidy sum; enough for a chap to get married on."
The two eyed each other steadily. And in his heart Braine sighed. For he saw in this young man's eyes incorruptibility.
"It is yours on one condition," said Braine, reaching out his foot stealthily toward the button which would summon Samson.
"And that is," interpolated Norton, "that I join the Black Hundred."
"Or the great beyond, my lad," took up Braine, his voice crisp and cold.
Norton could not repress a shiver. Where had he heard this voice before? ... Braine! He stiffened.