“Game! I don’t know of any game, unless you’re playing it.”
“Ah, yes; that’s what you ought to say, certainly, until I make you see that it will be worth your while to change your tune. You’re keen. But you know this is a bad business you’ve undertaken, a very bad business.”
Philip was bewildered by the man’s audacity. To fling into his face this charge!――to utter such impudent assertions as to Gerald! Belmont went on rapidly.
“You’d better confess yourself caught. I don’t care to talk much of what you have tried to manage. But on the getting possession of that boy, for my own reasons (that I may or may not explain to you)――on that thing, I tell you, once for all, I am determined.” Here his voice had a ring like metal in it. “My plan has been laid. I have consulted the proper authorities. Captain Widgins and several other gentlemen――”
“Do you suppose that they will support such a man as――”
“As they, not you, consider me,” replied Belmont. “Yes, I do. Unluckily for you, my reputation happens to differ――in various quarters. I shall have no trouble. Let me repeat it, you’ll save yourself much by quietly joining with me. I’ll tell you all that is necessary in due time, Touchtone,” he concluded, with a crowning dash of assurance, probably fancying that he had already bewildered Philip into submission. “The sum total of the affair is, I want possession of that little boy. Don’t try to prevent me! Bring him off the boat to-morrow morning when we stop at Martha’s Vineyard. I promise you I’ll let you understand things then far more fully than I can to-night. I’ll fix it all right with the captain, and I’ll say we’ve squared our quarrel. Last, but not least, you will never come across a job that will be so well worth your while. I should think not; that is, if you care for money. And not a hair of the boy’s head shall be hurt, for the world, in any case. Be sure of that.”
Choking with anger at having to listen to such an astounding proposal, but gathering new certainty that his adversary’s scheme must be a wonderful web of sheer rascality, Philip did not at once open his mouth. Then he asked, “And if I refuse to act as you advise me――which I think I ought to do, unless I can see more clearly what it means for me――what then?”