“You are all she has, and she’ll give you—whatever you want.”
“Yes; is there anything wonderful in that? You say it in a tone——”
“We’re not on such terms as to question each other’s tones, are we?” said Lew. “Though I’m idle, as Janet says, I have always an eye to business, Bob. Never mind your mother; isn’t there some old buffer in the country that could spare us some of his gold? The nights are pretty dark now, though they don’t last long—eh, Bob?”
There was more a great deal than was open to a listening ear in the tone of the question. And Robert Ogilvy grew red to his hair. “For God’s sake,” he cried, “not a word of that here—in my own place, Lew! If there’s anything in the world you care for——”
“Is there anything in the world I care for?” said the other. “Not very much, except myself. I’ve always had a robust regard for that person. Well—I’m not fond of doing nothing, though your folks think me a lazy dog. Janet’s eyes are well open, but she’s not so clever as she thinks. I’m beginning to get very tired, I can tell you, of this do-nothing life. I’d like to put a little money in my pocket, Rob. I’d like to feel a little excitement again. We’ll take root like potatoes if we go on like this.”
Mr Lewis’s talk was sprinkled with words of a more energetic description, but they waste a good deal of type and a great many marks of admiration. The instructed can fill them in for themselves.
“I don’t think we could be much better off,” said Robbie, with a certain offence; “plenty of grub, and good of its kind—you said that yourself—and a safe place to lie low in. I thought that was what you wanted most.”
“So it was, if a man happened always to be in the same mind. I want a little excitement, Bob. I want a good beast under me, and the wind in my face. I want a little fun—which perhaps wouldn’t be just fun, don’t you know, for the men we might have the pleasure of meeting——”
“If those detective fellows get on the trail you’ll have fun enough,” Robert said.
“I—both of us, if you please, old fellow: we’re in the same box. The captain—and one of the chief members of the gang. That’s how they’ve got us down, recollect. You never knew you were a chief member before—eh, Rob? But I don’t like that sort of fun. I like to hunt, not to be hunted, my boy. And I’m very tired of lying low. Let’s make a run somewhere—eh? I like the feeling of the money that should be in another man’s pocket tumbling into my own.”