“I promise, on my word of honor,” replied Cotton, emphatically, “never to breathe a word of it to any one as long as I live.”
“Then――then why do you want to know?” exploded Harry, impatiently. “That’s the funniest thing I ever heard of, Cotton!”
Cotton shook his head and smiled at his own weakness.
“Curiosity, Merrow, just as I told you. I’ve got an awful lot of curiosity. Once I want to know a thing I just can’t be satisfied until I do.” He smiled ingenuously across at Harry. Harry stared speculatively back. Finally――――
“Well, if you promise on your word of honor――” He hesitated.
His gaze went back to the stamp. “Say,” he demanded with sudden suspicion, poking the stamp with his finger, “you’re sure that isn’t a forgery?”
“Forgery! Of course not!” replied the other, indignantly. “Why, look at the water-mark if you don’t believe me!” He held it to the light and then passed it to Harry. Harry looked and was satisfied.
“Well, then,” he began again, “I’ll tell you. There was Pennimore for one. They got him.”
“Yes!” said Cotton, eagerly, leaning nearer.
“Then there was――” He stopped again. Something in Cotton’s expression made him vaguely uneasy. He frowned a moment at the stamp, and then pushed it quickly away from him across the stained table and arose from his chair. “I don’t want that,” he declared, roughly. “I’ll buy it from you some time, maybe, but I’m not going to get those fellows in trouble.”
“But I told you I wouldn’t tell!” exclaimed Cotton, eagerly.
“I know you did. Well, I’m not going to give you a chance to. I guess I’ll be going now; it’s pretty late. Glad to have met you.”
“Then you don’t want the stamp?” asked Cotton, petulantly.
Harry shook his head. “Not that bad, I guess. I’ll buy it some time when I have more cash.”
“No, you won’t,” returned Cotton, sharply, as he picked it up. “I gave you your chance. You can’t buy it now for a thousand dollars!”
“All right,” replied Harry, cheerfully. “Then I’ll get one somewhere else. I guess that isn’t the only one in the world! Good-by.”
“Hold on! How about those revenues you have? Want to trade them?”
“Not now. You had your chance, too. You couldn’t have them now for _fifty_ thousand dollars!” Harry smiled sweetly and walked to the door. Cotton, replacing the stamp in his wallet, frowned darkly.