Page:Edgar Wallace - The Man who Knew.djvu/28

 use to worry about it very much, but I suppose I 'm growing old now, and living surrounded by the law, as it were, I am too law-abiding. A law-abiding man is one who is afraid of people who are not law-abiding, and I am getting to that stage. You laugh at me because I 'm jumpy whenever I see a stranger hanging around the house, but I have got more enemies to the square yard than most people have to the county. I suppose you think I am subject to delusions and ought to be put under restraint. A rich man has n't a very happy time," he went on, speaking half to himself and half to the young man. "I 've met all sorts of people in this country and been introduced as John Minute, the millionaire, and do you know what they say as soon as my back is turned?"

Jasper offered no suggestion.

"They say this," John Minute went on, "whether they 're young or old, good, bad, or indifferent: 'I wish he 'd die and leave me some of his money.'"