“Well now, Tremorne, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You say nothing of this former company of ours, and if you will report favourably on what I have to tell you so that old Hemster will come and see me, or allow me to go to him, I’ll give you two hundred thousand dollars cash as soon as our deal is completed.”
“I refuse it.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No, I do not, but I refuse it nevertheless. I should refuse it if you offered me the money here and now.”
Cammerford leaned back in his chair.
“You want to go the whole hog?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said I.
“You want the whole five hundred thousand or nothing. Well, I tell you at once I can’t afford to give that much. I’ll raise fifty thousand dollars, and make the total amount two hundred and fifty; but I can’t go a cent more, and there is no use trying to bluff me.”
“I am not trying to bluff you, Mr. Cammerford. I should refuse the bribe if you made it five hundred thousand.”