“I knew that was the decision you would come to, so I got the carriage and made it all right with the driver,” said Scanlan. “I have got an extension bit, which is about the only thing we need, to enable us to get in through the basement door. Now, Cliff, how much am I going to get for this? I do all the work and you stand by and look on. I ought to have a considerable sum for that.”
“Why, I guess what I am to give the doctor——” began Henderson.
“Not much,” said Scanlan, with a laugh. “What you will give the doctor won’t faze me. Say a tenth of what you make.”
“Oh, my goodness!” stammered Henderson.
“I have got the paper here, it is all drawn up, and I guess it is all right,” continued Scanlan, drawing a folded document from his inside pocket. “Just run your eye over that.”
“A hundred thousand!” gasped Henderson.
“That isn’t a drop in the bucket to what you will have if you succeed,” said Scanlan coolly. “You will see that the paper says ‘if successful.’ If you don’t succeed in the job, why that is my lookout. If you do, I shall want the money. If the arrangement doesn’t suit you, get somebody else to try his hand.”
That was just what Henderson was afraid of, and things had gone too far for him to back out. He felt as though he was signing his death warrant when he was affixing his signature to the document, but when it was done the writing did not look much like his bold penmanship.
“So far so good,” said Scanlan, coolly surveying the signature. “But you are a little nervous, Cliff. Now you keep that tutor off me and I will get the boy. You meet me here at ten o’clock, and when morning comes that fellow will be under lock and key.”
“I have done it,” said Henderson, going out on the street and wending his way toward his brother’s house. “I have gone too far to back out. Here I have gone and signed a paper and placed it in the hands of that man Scanlan, and he can use it on me at a moment’s warning. He’s a desperate fellow. I wish I felt as certain of success as he does.”