"
"I'll swear I'll do my best, Jim; I'll work double
tides," said I. "It is my fault that you are in this
thing, and I'll get you out again, or kill myself. But
what is that you say? 'If we go ahead?' Have we any
choice, then?"
"I'm coming to that," said Jim. "It isn't that I doubt
the investment. Don't blame yourself for that; you
showed a fine sound business instinct: I always knew it
was in you, but then it ripped right out. I guess that
little beast of an attorney knew what he was doing; and
he wanted nothing better than to go beyond. No,
there's profit in the deal; it's not that; it's these
ninety-day bills, and the strain I've given the credit-
-for I've been up and down borrowing, and begging and
bribing to borrow. I don't believe there's another man
but me in 'Frisco," he cried, with a sudden fervour of
self-admiration, "who could have raised that last ten
thousand! Then there's another thing. I had hoped you
might have peddled that opium through the islands,
which is safer and more profitable. But with this
three-month limit, you must make tracks for Honolulu
straight, and communicate by steamer.
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