is a risk to be run, but it doesn’t amount to much; and if the scheme comes off it will set you on your legs again. Part of this money you will have to spend in a first-class passage to England by the next steamer, and there’ll be plenty more for you on arrival.”
“My dear friend, you seem to be a sort of Aladdin. If you only knew the existence I have been leading here, without the courage to terminate it, you would be assured of my answer,” replied Hanbury, wondering but not caring much what was expected of him. To escape from his dry-goods drudgery and return to England with money in his pocket and the prospect of more—why, the ex-cavalry officer felt that he would loot the Crown Jewels for that! And he said so in so many words.
“Then you’re the man for us,” was the verdict of Mr. Jevons. “It’s a bit on the cross—not burglary, but a little matter of planting some beautifully imitated paper. Is that too steep for you?”
Hanbury made a wry face, but answered without hesitation:
“Aiding a forgery isn’t quite the road to fortune I should have chosen, but beggars—you know the maxim. Society hasn’t been too
[15]
