fortably, "but the fact of it is I can't."

"This is a debt of honor. Gentlemen always pay their debts of honor. It
takes precedence of all other claims."

"I have no other claims. That is all I owe to anybody."

"Well, when can you let me have the money?"

"I am sure I don't know," returned Philip, sullenly. "I didn't expect
you were going to press me so."

James Congreve saw that Philip had reached the point which he desired.

"I press you because I have to," he said. "I have already told you how
you can settle the claim."

"How?" asked Philip, uneasily.

He could guess, for there had been conversation on that point before.

"You know what I mean. Get hold of some of your father's government
bonds," said Congreve, insinuatingly.

"I don't want to become a thief."

"Pooh! Isn't he your father, and ain't you an only son? Won't it all be
yours sometime?"

"Yes, but----"

"Oh, don't bother with buts! That makes all the difference in the
world."

"I couldn't do it without being suspected," objected Philip, with whom
this was the principal consideration.

"Yes, you can. You'll give the bonds to me, and I will dispose of them.
If you could get hold of two hundred-dollar bonds, I would give you the
balance, after deducting the amount of my debt."

"But I am sure to be suspected."

"Unless you throw the suspicion upon some one else."

"How can I?"

"There's your friend, Harry Gilbert----"

"He isn't my friend."

"Well, your enemy, then. So much the better. You can say you saw him
prowling round the house. If you could get him arrested, it would be a
satisfaction, even if he wasn't convicted."

"That's true. I should like to get even with him."

"So you can. You can throw suspicion on him, and get off free yourself.
It will be a splendid revenge."

Philip began to think favorably of the scheme, arid before he left the
hotel had agreed to it.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE TEMPTER

Philip was far from being a model boy--as we have seen, he didn't shrink
from meanness--but it was not without reluctance that he assented to
James Congreve's proposal. He did not feel that abhorrence of theft that
a better principled boy would have done, but the thought of resorting to
it gave him a sense of humiliation. Besides, the fear of detection
inspired in him a certain uneasy feeling. In fact, he retraced his
steps, and sought Congreve in his room again.

"What! back