“I am glad you have put me on my guard. Nothing will be easier than for me to charge you with insanity and have you committed to an asylum.”
Gerald shuddered at this threat, though he had made up his mind to secure his release by surrendering the duplicate papers in his pocket. The real documents were in the custody of a safe deposit company in the city, having been placed with them only the day previous.
“Won’t you give me something for them?” he asked. “I don’t like to give them up without any return.”
“I may be able to secure a hundred dollars, but I won’t promise. I don’t see why you don’t accept Mr. Wentworth’s offer. How long since was it made?”
“It was made for the last time on the steamer Rock Island.”
“You won’t tell me how large a sum Mr. Wentworth owes you?”
“I may as well tell you, as the papers would inform you. It is twenty thousand dollars!”
“Twenty thousand dollars!” ejaculated Standish thoroughly amazed. “How is it possible that he should owe so much?”
“I can only tell you that it is a debt of honor.”