“But how did they find out McLiver was in prison, Mr. Wynn?”
“Some one of your servants or clerks must have carried the news to them.”
“We’ll get the scoundrels back, cost what it will. To-morrow the officers of justice shall fly in pursuit. We’ll find them somewhere.”
“No doubt, sir, they deserve severe punishment, though I am sorry for McNab, because he has a large family, and in punishing him you will punish his innocent wife and children.”
“They, Mr. Wynn, shall not come to want. While resolving to punish the guilty, I’ll see to the interests of the guiltless.”
“Give me your hand, friend Roberts,” said Mr. Jones. “You are a noble fellow; your heart is in the right place; and I’ll join you in so holy a work.”
“I must now turn,” said Mr. Roberts, “to a more pleasant theme. It has been by you, Mr. Wynn, I have been saved from ruin. You have business talents of a high order. I would trust you with untold gold. You have proved your fidelity and tact under circumstances the most trying. In our relationship I plainly see the finger of Heaven. I now plainly see that it is my interest no less than your own that our relationship should be closer than it has hitherto been. The business, as you are aware, is wholly my own. Thank Heaven, I possess all the wealth I desire. However, I love work, and at present I’m not quite prepared to throw off the harness. I shall do so, however, in a few years. In view of that day I think it well to prepare for it. I have therefore resolved to take into partnership my son Rhys and you, and we’ll take equal profits. The money in the business I shall regard as a set-off against your ability and talent, and when I go out I will leave in your joint hands the capital necessary for successfully carrying on the concern. Are you prepared, Mr. Wynn, to accept my offer?”
“With deep gratitude and thanks I do indeed accept your offer, Mr. Roberts. I shall never be able to repay you for your goodness and kindness. To me you have been always kind, always generous, ever noble and disinterested. To Mr. Jones and you I owe my present position and the prospects before me. My gratitude, sir, I shall carry with me to the grave.”
“I rejoice,” remarked Mr. Jones, who had hitherto been an almost silent listener, “to see this day, and I shall pray Heaven that the sun of prosperity may ever continue to shine on your concern, and that never an incident may occur calculated to disturb the kindly feeling and mutual confidence between you, friend Roberts, and your new partners.”
“To that, Jones, I say amen. Still I think there is not much danger on that score. We all know each other; that’s an important point. Unless my suspicions are wrong, which I think is not likely, that roving son of mine has managed to fall in love; and I warn you, Mr. Wynn, especially if you desire your sister to become your little housekeeper, to take care of her. If you don’t do so, his siege on her heart’s citadel will prove, I fear, successful. Well, I forgive him for making love without his father’s permission; and you, Mr. Wynn, must pardon him too.”