"I hope I shall be able to make Mr. Raymond's time pass pleasantly."
"Oh, I have no doubt you will get on well together," said Mr. Morton. "Robert, I shall expect you to follow the directions of Mr. Cromwell, as I have confidence that he will act with good judgment."
"I have obtained tickets for you by the middle train," proceeded the merchant. "Here they are, Mr. Cromwell."
"Thank you, sir," said Cromwell, taking them and putting them in his pocket.
"You will remain at Niagara two or three days if you like," continued Paul Morton. "I have no doubt you will enjoy yourself. What do you say, Robert?"
"I shall be sure to enjoy it," said Robert, with animation.
"So shall I," said Cromwell. "I have never visited the Falls."
"Well," said the merchant, drawing on his gloves, "I am sorry, but I shall be obliged to leave you. I have considerable business awaiting me at my counting-room. I have ordered a carriage at eleven to convey you with your trunks to the railroad depot. Good-bye, Robert, good-bye, Mr. Cromwell. A pleasant journey to you."
"Oh, by the way, Mr. Cromwell," said the merchant, turning as he reached the door, and looking significantly at Cromwell, "if you meet with any mishap, telegraph me at once."
Again a greenish pallor overspread the face of James Cromwell, for he understood the allusion, and his cowardly nature recoiled with fear, not with abhorrence.
"Once more, good-bye, then," and Paul Morton closed the door behind him.
"I hope I shall never see that boy alive again," he said to himself. "Once get him out of the way and the money is mine. A hundred and twenty thousand dollars will be a great windfall to me. To be sure, there will be ten thousand to pay to Cromwell, but it will leave over a hundred thousand. Egad! it would be a capital arrangement if they both would tumble over the Falls together. It would be the best joke of the season."
And Paul Morton laughed to himself, a low, wicked laugh, at the prospect of the two from whom he had just parted being hurled together into a death so frightful, and all that he might gain money. As if human life were to be weighed against perishing dross! Yet every day life is bartered for it; not always criminally, but sacrificed by overwork, or undue risk, so insatiable is the hunger for gold, and so desperate are the efforts by which men seek to obtain it.