CHAPTER XVIII
THE DUPLICITY OF ADDICKS
Addicks looked at me in a cool, aggravating way, as though my enthusiasm was a joke.
"Lawson, you have done a big thing, a big thing, but you put up too many bonds, altogether too many. It looks to me as though that old trickster had got the best of us at last."
By this time I had learned all the moods of this man and knew that when he assumed that air of cold, saturnine jocularity it was safe to look for the uncovering of some vaporized trickery. My enthusiasm oozed. I hastened to ask:
"What do you mean by 'too many bonds,' Addicks? I gave him all we had. Sorry it was not more. We are to pay him four and a half million dollars, and the sooner we do it the better. Now out with what you've got in your mind; I won't stand any trifling."
Addicks continued to look at me with the same insolent, critical air. He said slowly:
"The reason I say you've given too many bonds is that we haven't a million and a half to put up. Where in the world did you get the idea we had?"
In an instant I realized that this sharper had tricked me into apparently tricking Rogers. I was boiling with rage.