I shrugged my shoulders. The prospect of enemies, more or less, in Denboro, did not trouble me.
“But you'll have to decide,” he went on, “who you'll sell to.”
“Or not sell at all,” I suggested.
“Can you afford to do that? There'll be money—a whole lot of money—in this before it's over, if I know the leaders on both sides. You've got the whip-hand. There'll be money in it. Can you afford to let it slip?”
I did not answer. Suddenly his expression changed. He looked haggard and care-worn.
“By the Almighty,” he said, between his teeth, and without looking at me, “I wish I had your chance.”
“Why?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing. . . . How's your mother nowadays?”
I told him that my mother was much as usual, and we talked of various things.
“By the way,” he said, “I've got some news for you. Nothing surprising. I guess all hands have seen it coming. I'm engaged to be married.”