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'Very well,' said Michael. 'Tomorrow I shall send down a clerk with a
cheque for a hundred, and he'll draw out the original sum and return it
to the Anglo-Patagonian, with some sort of explanation which I will try
to invent for you. That will clear your feet, and as Morris can't touch
a penny of it without forgery, it will do no harm to my little scheme.'
'
But what am I to do?' asked Joseph; 'I cannot live upon nothing.'
Don't you hear?' returned Michael. 'I send you a cheque for a hundred;
'
which leaves you eighty to go along upon; and when that's done, apply to
me again.'
'I would rather not be beholden to your bounty all the same,' said
Joseph, biting at his white moustache. 'I would rather live on my own
money, since I have it.'
Michael grasped his arm. 'Will nothing make you believe,' he cried,
'that I am trying to save you from Dartmoor?'
His earnestness staggered the old man. 'I must turn my attention
to law,' he said; 'it will be a new field; for though, of course, I
understand its general principles, I have never really applied my
mind to the details, and this view of yours, for example, comes on me
entirely by surprise. But you may be right, and of course at my time
of life--for I am no longer young--any really long term of imprisonment
would be highly prejudicial. But, my dear nephew, I have no claim on
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