"Yes, if you want to take the pay of a scoundrel like Deaves."
"Oh, I was fired some days ago. I'm working on my own now."
"You're just angry and jealous!"
"I dare say. I admit I don't mind your blackmailing operations half as much as the other thing."
"What other thing?"
"Those fellows on the Ernestina; to take advantage of their wanting you, and use them for your own ends."
"Everything was understood between us. Everything was open and aboveboard."
"Of course. But they were already enslaved, you see. And you forced them to serve your pride and arrogance. You queened it over them. That makes me more indignant than blackmailing a usurer, for the other thing's a crime against a man's best feelings, and I'm a man myself."
"You're only jealous!"
"Why should I be. I wouldn't stand for the brotherhood. I know you gave me—or I took—more than you ever gave them."