“What phrase?”
“‘God protect me from my friends,’ or words to that effect.”
He laughed most genially.
“That’s one on me,” he said. “However, I look on our score as being wiped out. Can’t you let bygones be bygones?”
“Oh, yes.”
“You see you are in a way responsible. I have turned over the money to you. Granted I was forced to do so. I claim no merit in the matter, but I do say a bargain is a bargain. I showed you the old man’s letter to me, in which he said if I did thus and so by you, he would join me in the big beef combine. You remember that, don’t you?”
“Naturally, I shouldn’t soon forget it, or forget the generosity of Mr. Hemster in writing it.”
“Oh, generosity is cheap when you are doing it at somebody else’s expense. Still, I don’t complain of that at all. What I say is this: I’ve kept my part of the contract strictly and honestly, but now the old man is trying to euchre me.”
“I remember also, Mr. Cammerford, that you said Mr. Hemster was a rogue or dishonest, or something of like effect.”