Nick eyed him for a moment, waiting for him to speak. But he sat without a word, and with his glowing eyes fixed on him in a way that made Nick's flesh creep. 'Do you want me?' at last inquired he.
'Not I,' replied the other in a gruff voice. 'You want me.'
'You? I never laid eyes on you before,' said Nick.
'I've been at your elbow for the last half-hour; ever since you were thinking of Kidd's money. I have charge of it.'
'Whew-w!' Nick drew a long, low whistle, and laid his finger with a sort of drunken gravity on his nose. 'Then you know what I was thinking of?'
'Then you must be ----' Nick paused, as he did not like to be disrespectful. 'You must be ----'
'And you have charge of Kidd's money?' inquired Nick.
'But can you tell me where it is?' asked Nick in an insinuating tone. 'It's of no use to any one now.'
The stranger looked about him, and then said in a cautious tone: I suppose I might, but it would be a breach of trust; I promised never to reveal it.'
'I think you observed that you are the Old Boy,' remarked Nick.
'The Old Boy, Old Nick, Old Harry, Old Scratch, among friends! My enemies are less courteous in their titles,' replied the other.
'Well,' said Nick, in a very insinuating tone, 'that being the case, a trifling breach of trust can't hurt _you_. You know that your character is none of the best; I don't mean to say that you deserve what is said of you,' added he in an apologetic tone, 'but people _will_ talk, and they sometimes make very free with you.'
'I know it,' replied the other. 'I'm used to it; I don't mind it.'
'Well,' said Nick, returning to the subject of the gold, 'if you could put me in the way of getting that money, I would do something for you d--d handsome.'
'I can't venture,' replied the other resolutely; 'I don't mind Kidd so much. He's bad enough, and has some desperate fellows leagued with him; but the worst of all is a hard-headed Dutchman, one Teunis Van Gelder. Since he came into our quarters, he and Kidd have struck up a kind of partnership: I've led a dog's life.'
'But they can't use the money,' urged Nick.
'Can any miser use his money?' inquired the other, 'yet no miser will part with it. They like to know it's there. I tell you, Sir,' said he, striking his club hard on the ground, and speaking with much emphasis, 'if they lost that money, they'd make my quarters too hot to hold me.'
