“And that’s the reason why you took three hundred dollars out of my trunk, I suppose?”
“Mr. Bristlebach handed me that money himself. I wanted to pay out that amount to-night, and I drew a check for it. I entirely forgot it when we counted the cash, and that was the deficit. Here is the check; as you put the money back, I took the check from your drawer. That’s the whole story.”
“Why didn’t you explain it to Mr. Bristlebach, then?” I asked, believing not a word he said.
“Because it was so stupid of me to forget that the check had been paid out of your cash.”
“Very stupid, indeed!”
“I will tell him about it to-morrow,” added my uncle.
As I have said before, a man in my situation could not afford to quarrel with one so powerful as Captain Halliard. I kept my own counsel, not wholly certain that he would not yet be called upon to pay the amount of his bond on my account. We parted in peace, and I was abundantly pleased that I had been able to fight off the charge.
The next morning, when I went to the bank, I took the eight thousand from the cash, which Cormorin had lent me, and returned it to him. He was a happy man then. I doubt whether he slept a wink the night before, for the idea of being responsible for my deficit, as well as his own, could not have been very comforting to him.
I was all right at the bank, and my uncle treated me with “distinguished consideration.” On several occasions he assured me he should use his influence in my favor with Aunt Rachel. If I wished for the money he had compelled me to pay—solely for my own good—he would let me have it again. Indeed, if I was short at any time, he would lend me a thousand dollars. I thought I might have occasion to avail myself of his offer, and I was pleasant and pliable. I said nothing more about the three hundred dollars.