"
Da Souza planted himself in front of them.
"You defy me!" he said. "You will not trust him with me or take my
advice. Very well, my friend! Now listen! You want to ruin me!
Well, if I go, the Bekwando Company shall go too, you understand!
Ruin for me shall mean ruin for Mr. Scarlett Trent - ah, ruin and
disgrace. It shall mean imprisonment if I can bring it about, and
I have friends! Don't you know that you are guilty of fraud? You
sold what wasn't yours and put the money in your pocket! You left
your partner to rot in a fever swamp, or to be done to death by
those filthy blacks. The law will call that swindling! You will
find yourself in the dock, my friend, in the prisoners' dock, I say!
Come, how do you like that, Mr. Scarlett Trent? If you leave this
room with him, you are a ruined man. I shall see to it."
Trent swung him out of the way - a single contemptuous turn of the
wrist, and Da Souza reeled against the mantelpiece. He held out
his hand to Monty and they left the room together.
CHAPTER XXXVII
>From a conversational point of view," Lady Tresham remarked, "our
guest to-night seems scarcely likely to distinguish himself."
Ernestine looked over her fan across the drawing-room.
"I have never seen such an alteration in a man," she said, "in so
short a time.
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