"Belloc! Knuckle
down to him! Sell out to him!"
"Well, if you got a profit of twenty per cent. above what it's worth it
might be well. That'd be a triumph, not a defeat."
"I see what you mean," said John Grier, the passion slowly going from his
eyes. "I see what you mean, but that ain't my way. I want this business
to live. I want Grier's business to live long after John Grier has gone.
That's why I was going to say to you that in my will I'm going to leave
you this business, you to pay my wife every year twenty thousand
dollars."
"And your son, Carnac?"
"Not a sou-not a sou--not a sou--nothing--that's what I meant at first.
But I've changed my mind now. I'm going to leave you the business, if
you'll make a bargain with me. I want you to run it for three years, and
take for yourself all the profits over the twenty thousand dollars a year
that goes to my wife. There's a lot of money in it, the way you'd work
it."
"I don't understand about the three years," said Tarboe, with rising
colour.
"No, because I haven't told you, but you'll take it in now. I'm going to
leave you the business as though you were going to have it for ever, but
I'll make another will dated a week later, in which I leave it to Carnac.
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