“Then there was—” He stopped again. Something in Cotton’s expression made him vaguely uneasy. He frowned a moment at the stamp, and then pushed it quickly away from him across the stained table and arose from his chair. “I don’t want that,” he declared, roughly. “I’ll buy it from you some time, maybe, but I’m not going to get those fellows in trouble.”
“But I told you I wouldn’t tell!” exclaimed Cotton, eagerly.
“I know you did. Well, I’m not going to give you a chance to. I guess I’ll be going now; it’s pretty late. Glad to have met you.”
“Then you don’t want the stamp?” asked Cotton, petulantly.
Harry shook his head. “Not that bad, I guess. I’ll buy it some time when I have more cash.”
“No, you won’t,” returned Cotton, sharply, as he picked it up. “I gave you your chance. You can’t buy it now for a thousand dollars!”
“All right,” replied Harry, cheerfully. “Then I’ll get one somewhere else. I guess that isn’t the only one in the world! Good-by.”
“Hold on! How about those revenues you have? Want to trade them?”
“Not now. You had your chance, too. You couldn’t have them now for fifty thousand dollars!” Harry smiled sweetly and walked to the door. Cotton, replacing the stamp in his wallet, frowned darkly.
On his way home Harry pondered the Broadwood boy’s offer. “Why, I wonder, was he so anxious to learn who the fellows were. I’ll just bet if I’d told him he’d have gone straight back and let it all out, promise or no promise!”