“You don’t seem to consider that I can bring the boy here and make him known to your uncle as the son he lost so long ago?”
“You are quite sure you can bring the boy here?” asked Curtis.
“Why not? I have only to go to Florence and ask her to send the boy to me.”
“You are quite at liberty to do so if you like, Tim Bolton,” said Curtis, with a mocking smile. “I am glad, at any rate, that you have shown me what is in your mind. You are very sharp, but you are not quite so sharp as I am.”
“I don’t understand you.”
“Then I will be more explicit. It’s out of your power to make use of the boy against me, because——”
“Well?”
“Because he is not in the city.”
“Where is he, then?”
“Where you are not likely to find him.”