“You won’t bring the boy back with you?”
“Not if he wants to go on.”
“I say, Jim, I’m hard up. Let me have five dollars now.”
“I assure you, Jack, I am not in a situation to part with any money just now.”
“I must have it,” said Jack, significantly.
“Oh, well, if you must,” and Mr. Percy Burnett drew it from his vest pocket, and reluctantly put it into the hand of the “rough diamond.”
“It’s rough luck meeting that fellow!” he muttered as he returned to his young secretary, “I was hoping I should not meet a soul that knew me till this job was fairly off my hands. Jack is always hard up, but it wasn’t safe to refuse him. I must not allow him to have any conversation with the boy. I will take care to steer clear of him when I come back this way.”
It was clear that Mr. Percy Burnett was not so much attached to the “rough diamond” as he led Tom to suppose.