“Well, what’s the matter?” Blake presently inquired.
“I was just wondering,” replied Blind Charlie, slowly, “if it wouldn’t be better to call this business off between you and me.”
“Call it off?”
“Yes. I never imagined you were playing for such a little pile as fifty thousand. Since there’s only fifty thousand in it”—his voice suddenly rang out with vindictive triumph—“I was wondering if it wouldn’t pay me better to use what I know to help elect Bruce.”
“Elect Bruce?” cried Blake in consternation.
“Exactly. Show you up, and elect Bruce,” said Blind Charlie coolly. “To elect my mayor—there’s more than fifty thousand for me in that.”
There was a dismayed silence on Blake’s part. But after a moment he recovered himself, and this time it was his voice that had the note of ascendency.
“You are forgetting one point, Mr. Peck,” said he.
“Yes?”