“I have read them, and the boy explained the circumstances.”
Bradley Wentworth turned red. He saw that his secret was exposed, and that this man knew that he had once been a forger.
“You can’t depend upon what the boy told you,” he said.
“It is confirmed by the letters.”
“You had no right to read the letters. It was a breach of faith.”
“I don’t look at it in that light. I wanted to be sure that they were the papers I was instructed to secure.”
“Very well. I will excuse you. Give me the papers and I will give you two hundred dollars, as I promised.”
“I must have five hundred,” said Standish firmly. “Even then you will save five hundred. If you had bargained with the boy you would have been obliged to give him a thousand.”
Then ensued a wordy wrangle, not necessary to detail. Wentworth, after trying in vain to keep Standish to the original agreement, finally paid him three hundred and fifty dollars, two hundred in bills and one hundred and fifty in a check payable to the order of Samuel Standish. Though he had not secured as much as he desired, Mr. Standish was reasonably satisfied, not for years having had so large a sum in his possession.