"What do you mean by in a position?" the old fellow snarled. "I am in a position to answer anything--that is to say, if I choose."
"Very well, then," said Leo; "in that case I am here as your master, and I must request you to stand before me."
"What! What! I stand?"
"Get up!" said Leo, and lifting the sofa in the air, he shook the old man off it, as if he were shaking a cat out of a feather-bed. Then he gave the worm-eaten piece of furniture a mighty kick, and with a grinding sound it fell to pieces.
The old man reeled against the table and gave Leo the crafty, savage look of a wild boar at bay.
"I'll remember this of you," he growled,
"I quite see," Leo went on, "that it is useless to try and get you to render me an account of my financial affairs, ... and that is not what I have come about. It is true that you have succeeded in playing the deuce with a large amount of my property, and the rest I shall have to put in order myself, to the best of my ability. Schumann and the accountant will explain the details to me. This much I have already ascertained, that if I thought it necessary, I should have abundance of material with which to put police-inspector Schuster on your track."
"Better and better," the old man said with a laugh of scorn, and began to toy with the pig's bladder.
"But don't think for a moment," Leo continued, "that I intend to do anything of the kind. Not that the relationship between us counts for anything. You could not very well bring more disgrace on my house than you have done during the last four years. Neither would the recollection of our old friendship deter me. I have had to pay dearly enough for it. No, I have another reason for coming here."
"So it seems," scoffed his uncle.