“Yes, I am; but of course you will see the papers he has to show, and may find error or fraud where I was unable to detect either.”
“All right, I shall see him then.”
“There is one thing further, Mr. Hemster. He offered me two hundred thousand dollars, then two hundred and fifty thousand, if I would conceal from you the fact that he had formerly defrauded me.”
“Yes, and what did you say?”
“I refused the money, of course.”
The old gentleman regarded me with an expression full of pity.
“I am sorry to mention it, Tremorne, but you are a numskull. Why didn’t you take the money? I’m quite able to look after myself. It doesn’t matter in the least to me whether or not the man has cheated everyone in the United States. If he cheats me as well, he’s entitled to all he can make. ‘The laborer is worthy of his hire,’ as the good Book says.”
As I had used this quotation to his daughter, I now surmised that she had told her father something of our stormy conversation.
“Quite true, Mr. Hemster, but the good Book also says, ‘Avoid the very appearance of evil,’ and that I have done by refusing his bribe.”