"I haven't forgotten the time when I would have had to
break and go home if you hadn't stood by me like a brother and lent me
money. For that reason, and for some others, I hate to see you bucking a
dead wall out here in the greasewood hills."
"It is you and your kind who are bucking the dead wall, Dick."
"No, listen; I'm giving it to you straight, now. A few minutes ago you
thought I was drunk--possibly too far gone to serve your purpose. I
wasn't; I was merely sick and disgusted at the spectacle afforded by a
crafty, crooked, double-dealing old world--the world we're living in.
Once in a blue moon an honest man turns up, and when that happens he's
got to be broken on the wheel--as you're going to be broken. Oh, yes; I
came out with ideals, too, but they've been knocked out of me. We all
have to keep the lock-step in business, and business is hell, Evan. I'm
honest to my salt--which is to say that as yet I'm not using my job to
line my own pockets, but that's the one decent thing that can be said of
me. Don't let me bore you."
"Go on," said Blount soberly. "I don't see the pointing of it yet,
but--"
"You will when I tell you that I've been lying to you; faking first one
thing and then another. Do you get that?"
"I hear you say it; yes."
"It's so. I faked that story about your father's having made an
underground deal with us.
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