Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/99

Rh “They are good, I reckon,” observed the wary Crawley. “Aint they good, Martin?”

“Might be worse,” responded the oily owner of the Golden Horn, “but it aint that. It's the rate. Seems like mighty little on a short loan.”

“It is mighty little,” continued Crawley, after a silence of some moments. “We would have to give more than that for what we borrowed 'round. There would n't be nothing in it for us, Billy,—not a cent to me and Martin.”

“I tell you what I 'll do,” put in the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, abruptly, as though the idea was new and sudden in its coming, “I 'll give you twelve per cent. for the money for a month, and I will enter into an agreement to turn over to you two one-eighth of what I win on the gamble.”

Crawley was very grave. The proposition pleased him hugely, but emotions found no expression with him. To loan fifty thousand dollars on good security at an enormous rate of interest, and in addition to have a substantial share in a speculation without standing to lose a cent, was a condition of affairs not likely