human
How do you like the looks of it?
gpt
What--what is it?
human
A check. Can't you see? A check that is good for forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight dollars.
gpt
Good for that? Why, it can't be! Now, is this more of your joking, Merriwell? If it is, I swear I shall feel like having a fight with you right here!
human
It's no joke, old man. That piece of paper is good--it is good for every dollar. The money is payable to me. I've got the dust to put my play out in great style.
gpt
What's this for?
human
It's for the Fillmore treasure, which I found in the Utah Desert, exclaimed Frank.
gpt
It was brought to me by the man who came in here a little while ago.
human
Waal, may I be chawed up fer grass by a spavin hoss!
gpt
Merry, he said, at last, beginning to tremble all over,
human
Of course I am,
gpt
How can you be?
human
I received it from the very man with whom I did the business in Carson when I made the deposit. In order that there might be no mistake he came on here and delivered it to me personally.
gpt
I think I'm dyin'! muttered Ephraim.
human
I've received a shock from which I'll never rekiver! Forty-three thousan' dollars! Oh, say, I know there's a mistake here!
gpt
Not a bit of a mistake,
human
And all that money is yourn?
gpt
No.
human
Why--why, ther check's made out to yeou.
gpt
Because the treasure was deposited by me.
human
And yeou faound it?
gpt
I found it, but I did so while in company with four friends.
human
Those friends were not with you at the moment when you found it, he said.
gpt
I've heard your story. You came near losing your life. The mad hermit fought to throw you from the precipice. The way you found the treasure, the dangers you passed through, everything that happened established your rightful claim to it. It belongs to you alone.
human
I do not look at it in that light, said Frank, calmly and positively.
gpt
There were five of us in the party. The others were my friends Diamond, Rattleton, Browning, and Toots.
human
A nigger! exclaimed Bart.
gpt
Do you call him your friend?
human
I do! exclaimed Merry.
gpt
More than once that black boy did things for me which I have never been able to repay. Although a coward at heart so far as danger to himself was concerned, I have known him to risk his life to save me from harm. Why shouldn't I call him my friend? His skin may be black, but his heart is white.
human
Oh, all right, muttered Hodge.
gpt
I haven't anything more to say. I was not one of your party at that time.
human
No.
gpt
I wish I had been.
human
So yeou could git yeour share of the boodle?
gpt
No! cried Hodge, fiercely.
human
So I could show the rest of them how to act like men! I would refuse to touch one cent of it! I would tell Frank Merriwell that it belonged to him, and he could not force me to take it. That's all.
gpt
Mebbe the others'll do that air way,
human
Not on your life! sneered Bart.
gpt
They'll gobble onto their shares with both hands. I know them, I've traveled with them, and I am not stuck on any of them.
human
I shall compel them to take it, smiled Frank.
gpt
I am sorry, fellows, that you both were not with me, so I could bring you into the division. I'd find a way to compel Hodge to accept his share.
human
Not in a thousand years!
gpt
Waal, drawled Ephraim,
human
I ain't saying, but I'd like a sheer of that money well enough, but there's one thing I am sayin'. Sence Hodge has explained why he wouldn't tech none of it, I be gol-dinged if yeou could force a single cent onter me ef I hed bin with yeou, same as them other fellers was! I say Hodge is jest right abaout that business. The money belongs to yeou, Frank, an' yeou're the only one that owns a single dollar of it, b'gosh!
gpt
That's right, Ephraim, nodded Hodge.
human
And there isn't another chap in the country who would insist on giving away some of his money to others under similar circumstances. Some people might call it generosity; I call it thundering foolishness!
gpt
I can't help what you call it, said Frank;
human
I shall do what I believe is right and just, and thus I will have nothing to trouble my conscience.
gpt
Conscience! conscience! You'll never be rich in the world, for you have too much conscience. Do you suppose the Wall Street magnates could have become millionaires if they had permitted their conscience to worry them over little points?
human
I fancy not, acknowledged Merry, shaking his head.
gpt
I am certain I shall never become wealthy in just the same manner that certain millionaires acquired their wealth. I'd rather remain poor. Such an argument does not touch me, Hodge.
human
Oh, I suppose not! But it's a shame for you to be such a chump! Just think what you could do with forty-three thousand dollars! You could give up this show business, you could go back to Yale and finish your course in style. You could be the king-bee of them all. Oh, it's a shame!
gpt
Haow much'll yeou hev arter yeou divide?
human
The division will give the five of us eight thousand seven hundred and forty-six dollars and eighty cents each,
gpt
He's figured that up so quick!
human
I snum! eight thaousan' dollars ain't to be sneezed at!
gpt
It's a pinch beside forty-three thousand,
human
Yeou oughter be able to go back to college on that, Frank.
gpt
He can, if he'll drop the show business,
human
And confess myself a failure! Acknowledge that I failed in this undertaking? Would you have me do that?
gpt
Oh, you wouldn't confess anything of the sort. What were you working for? To go back to Yale, was it not?
human
Sure.
gpt
Well, I don't suppose you expected to make so much money that you would be able to return with more than eight thousand dollars in your inside pocket?
human
Hardly.
gpt
Then what is crawling over you? If you are fool enough to make this silly division, you can go back with money enough to take you through your course in style.
human
And have the memory of what happened in this town last night rankle in my heart! Hardly! I made a speech from the stage last night, in which I said I would play again in this city, and I promised that the audience should be satisfied. I shall keep that promise.
gpt
Oh, all right! I suppose you'll be thinking of rewarding the ladies and gentlemen who called here a short time ago and attempted to bulldoze you?
human
I shall see that the members of the company, one and all, are treated fairly. I shall pay them two weeks salary, which will be all they can ask.
gpt
You beat them all! he growled.
human
I'd do just like that--I don't think! Not one of those people has a claim on you. I'd let them all go to the deuce! It would be serving them right.
gpt
Well, I shall do nothing of the sort, my dear fellow.
human
I presume you will pay Lloyd Fowler two weeks salary?
gpt
I shall.
human
Where are you going?
gpt
I'm going out somewhere all alone by myself, where I can say some things about you. I am going to express my opinion of you to myself. I don't want to do it here, for there would be a holy fight. I've got to do it in order to let off steam and cool down. I shall explode if I keep it corked up inside of me.