"My dear uncle, if you, the only relative I have in the world, had treated me, when first I entered your office, as you might have been expected to do, I might have become an affectionate and worthy nephew." "Not you. You started robbing me before you'd been in the place a week." "Is that so? So soon as that? Perhaps you have never known what it is to be in want of ready cash." "When I was eighteen I was keeping myself on fifty pounds a year, for which I was working anything up to sixteen hours a day." "Indeed! It might have been better if that period of your life had lasted longer. You wouldn't have been in the rotten condition you are." "What's the matter with my condition? I never had a day's illness in my life." "My dear uncle, if you weren't in a rotten condition you'd have rung that alarm bell before this, wouldn't you? But, although it's only within a foot or two, you'll never ring it--never, because you are rotten." Mr. Patterson glanced towards the black knob. Rodney shook his head. "It's no good, uncle. You won't be able to get at it--you know that. What an illustration you are of the desirability of keeping oneself fit! It seems that from the first you kept a sharper eye on me than I suspected." "I'm not the fool you took me for." "Aren't you? That remains to be seen. Do you think that it was the part of wisdom to threaten me as you have been doing when you and I were alone together in a compartment of a railway train which doesn't stop, at least, till it gets to Croydon?" "I've not been threatening you; I wouldn't condescend. I've only been telling you what you may expect." "That's all; and by doing so you've made the issue a simple one. If you reach town alive, to all intents I shall be dead; whereas, if you reach town dead, I--shall be on velvet, because you see, my dear uncle, I'm Gladys' lover; and she loves me, if possible, even more than I do her. I've proofs of it. Since she is your only child, when you are dead everything you have will be hers, which is tantamount to saying that it will be mine, which is just what I should like. So you will at once perceive how--from every point of view--very much to my advantage it would be that you should be dead." "You young hell-hound! Unfortunately for you, I'm not dead, and I'm not likely to die." "Oh, yes, you are, very likely--unfortunately for you. You told me that my father only found one way to escape trouble--suicide. You hinted in your most affectionate manner that some time, in my turn, I might only find one way. Your kindly hint made such an impression on me that I actually made preparations, so that I might never be at a loss if ever that time should come. Those preparations are contained in this dainty little box." Rodney took from his waistcoat pocket what might have passed as a silver needle-case or receptacle for pins. He held it out in front of his uncle, who was as much moved by the sight of it as if it had been some object of horror.