"The man looked worried," he muttered, as if to himself. "Suppose that
Chinaman has really stolen his money! The man looked very worried."
"Nothing but his artfulness, sir," protested Ricardo earnestly, for the
idea was too disconcerting to entertain. "Is it likely that he would
have trusted a Chink with enough knowledge to make it possible?" he
argued warmly. "Why, it's the very thing that he would keep close about.
There's something else there. Ay, but what?"
"Ha, ha, ha!" Mr. Jones let out a ghostly, squeaky laugh. "I've never
been placed in such a ridiculous position before," he went on, with a
sepulchral equanimity of tone. "It's you, Martin, who dragged me into
it. However, it's my own fault too. I ought to--but I was really
too bored to use my brain, and yours is not to be trusted. You are a
hothead!"
A blasphemous exclamation of grief escaped from Ricardo. Not to be
trusted! Hothead! He was almost tearful.
"Haven't I heard you, sir, saying more than twenty times since we got
fired out from Manila that we should want a lot of capital to work the
East Coast with? You were always telling me that to prime properly all
them officials and Portuguese scallywags we should have to lose heavily
at first. Weren't you always worrying about some means of getting hold
of a good lot of cash? It wasn't to be got hold of by allowing yourself
to become bored in that rotten Dutch town and playing a two-penny game
with confounded beggarly bank clerks and such like.
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