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 them clear. Come, didn't I tell you that I wished to take you into my confidence? I'll be as good as my word, if you'll only keep cool. I'll start again, with a piece of advice—give up to me like a sensible fellow. The game you've tried to play is in my hands. You can't carry it on."

"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.