“Now for my plan. I will guarantee that you get the money back three days after the King has signed this concession—but then you will have to work the Minister!”
“I?”
“No one is in a better position to do it; the business is honest enough, but, like all business, it has a shady side to it: and the authorities have a nasty way of seeing the black before the white. There is some black about it, I won’t deny; but if you can manage to show up the white, we shall be that thousand guilders to the good.”
“But I don’t see——”
“No need you should, for the moment. Take the papers to your room, read them, think over them, and, once more, three days after the granting of the concession, your debt is no longer in existence.”
“Prigson!”
“Van Arlen!”
“What you ask—can it be reconciled with an honest man’s conscience?”
“What do you take me for, Van Arlen?”
Van Arlen was silent for a moment, and then said slowly, “For a man who wants to be rich.”