Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/140

128 when you ain't got it—just two," said Tod, oracularly.

"And what are those?"

"Stealing and borrowing. And if you steal you know there 's always a risk about being an expense to your country; and no self-respecting man wants that. But borrowing! Get a good, quiet, peaceable victim,—the kind that don't make a fuss, likes to have his leg pulled, thrives on it, misses it when you leave off,—and you 're on velvet. I should judge the colonel had found just the right kind."

"What a horrid thing to say, Tod!"

"Horrid! The colonel does n't think it 's horrid. I wonder who he 's corralled. Three years ago he took hold of my father. It was great, the way he worked the old man. You know, people have n't been able to trace Jerry McCormick through life by the quarters he 's dropped. It did my heart good to see the way the colonel managed him. I guess he must have got nearly a thou' out of him before my father shut down."

"I should n't think his daughter would like that," said Letitia, feeling a chill at her heart.

Tod raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. His faith in the pride and fine feelings of young women who were poor did not appear strong. But in spite of his assumption of a blasé cynicism, he was a kindly soul at heart.