“No. Nothing in the world could make them do it.”
“Not even if we threatened to denounce them?”
“No; not even then.”
“Not even if we put them in jail?”
Dr. Vince made no reply. The other sat waiting. And then suddenly he said in a low voice, “Doctor, I mean to MAKE them give it up. I see it quite clearly now—that is my duty. They must give it up!”
Again there was silence.
“Dr. Vince,” cried the boy in a voice of pain, “you surely mean to help me!”
And suddenly the doctor shut his lips together tightly. “No, Samuel,” he said. “I do not!”
The boy sat dumb. He felt a kind of faintness come over him. “You will leave me all alone?” he said in a weak voice.
The other made no reply.