"Where's the money Laura left?" he snapped with truculent sharpness, and I experienced a pang of pain to hear her name upon his lips. Nevertheless, I answered him evenly:
"That exists intact—about nineteen hundred dollars. It's the children's, unless I should need it for their education. I am the executor."
"Give me a thousand of that!" he cried passionately, yet with a tentative uncertainty in his voice, "and I'll go where I'll never see your face again!"
"That's a consummation, Pendleton—but of that not a penny!"
"Executor!" he repeated with vicious bitterness—"with your little laws and safeguards. God! How I hate you all! God! To be again where real men are—who move—and laugh—and live! Peddling mollycoddles—caged white mice! Damn you! I wish to God I had never met any of you!"
"You don't know how often I have wished that," I murmured, but he paid no heed.
"Lord! I want to be again where the sun shines, where a man can take a chance! I wish to God I had never met that moldy old rotten Dibdin! I was going into the commission business with an Englishman at Osaka—or I could have gone into one of the mines of Kuhara in Korea—copper—made a fortune!"—he spoke as if he were vehemently thinking aloud—"but that plausible rotter Dibdin came along—dragged me away—and I had a hankering for the lights of Broadway. Broadway! What have I seen of it? Want to put me in a cage—in a flat! Hell, man! Give me a thousand dollars—and let me—I'll pay it back!"
I did not laugh at his last words. His mention of Dibdin suddenly brought to my mind what was like a flash of light. To be rid of him was my paramount desire. Dibdin—Dibdin's check—to be used for the children! It lay yellowing in my pocketbook. Now if ever was the time. Never, I felt certain after Pendleton's confession, could I benefit the children more with a thousand dollars!
"Yes!" I cried explosively. "I understand you, Pendleton. I'll give you a thousand dollars. You don't belong here—it was a mistake bringing you—go where you came from—where you'll be at home." It was only afterwards I recalled that he had mentioned blackmail.
"You'll give it to me?" he exclaimed avidly, thrusting out his hand.