“Ezra, Ezra! I am afraid you are a trifle unprincipled,” said his friend in gay remonstrance.
“A man must look out for himself in this world, Barlow.”
“That’s so. You were born smart. I am afraid I wasn’t. Don’t you want a private secretary?”
“I may some time,” answered Ezra quite seriously. “If I do, I will think of you, Barlow.”
“How long shall you stay abroad?”
“Till this affair blows over. I may be able to do something over there. Six thousand dollars won’t last me forever.”
It may be imagined with what interest Ben listened to this conversation. It revealed to him the manner in which his stepfather had been fleeced. Skinflint as he was, it was his love for money that had made him a ready victim to Ezra and his wiles.
Though he had no love for Jacob Winter, he felt that Ezra was far more contemptible, and it made his blood boil to think of the cold-blooded way in which he had swindled those who had trusted to his plausible recommendations of the fraudulent mine which appeared to have no intrinsic value.
The two speakers had paid no especial attention to the boy who sat near them gazing with apparent absorption into the waters of the Sound.
At length Barlow noticed him and he breathed a word of caution to Ezra.