How are we to stand to
one another? and how am I to stand to Mr. Carthew?"
"I do not fully understand you," he replied, after a
pause; and then, after another: "it is the spirit I
refer to, Mr. Dodd."
"The spirit of my inquiries?" I asked.
He nodded.
"I think we are at cross-purposes," said I. "The
spirit is precisely what I came in quest of. I bought
the FLYING SCUD at a ruinous figure, run up by Mr.
Carthew through an agent; and I am, in consequence, a
bankrupt. But if I have found no fortune in the wreck,
I have found unmistakable evidences of foul play.
Conceive my position: I am ruined through this man,
whom I never saw; I might very well desire revenge or
compensation; and I think you will admit I have the
means to extort either."
He made no sign in answer to this challenge.
"Can you not understand, then," I resumed, "the spirit
in which I come to one who is surely in the secret, and
ask him, honestly and plainly, How do I stand to Mr.
Carthew?"
"I must ask you to be more explicit," said he.
"You do not help me much," I retorted.
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