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The Wrong Box-Part17_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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'O, but I say, this won't do,' cried the lawyer. 'You've put your

foot in it. You had no right to do what you did.'



'The whole thing is mine, Michael,' protested the old gentleman.

'I founded and nursed that business on principles entirely of my



own.'

'That's all very fine,' said the lawyer; 'but you made an



assignment, you were forced to make it, too; even then your

position was extremely shaky; but now, my dear sir, it means the



dock.'

'It isn't possible,' cried Joseph; 'the law cannot be so unjust



as that?'

'And the cream of the thing,' interrupted Michael, with a sudden



shout of laughter, 'the cream of the thing is this, that of

course you've downed the leather business! I must say, Uncle



Joseph, you have strange ideas of law, but I like your taste in

humour.'



'I see nothing to laugh at,' observed Mr Finsbury tartly.

'And talking of that, has Morris any power to sign for the firm?'



asked Michael.

'No one but myself,' replied Joseph.



'Poor devil of a Morris! O, poor devil of a Morris!' cried the

lawyer in delight. 'And his keeping up the farce that you're at



home! O, Morris, the Lord has delivered you into my hands! Let me

see, Uncle Joseph, what do you suppose the leather business



worth?'

'It was worth a hundred thousand,' said Joseph bitterly, 'when it



was in my hands. But then there came a Scotsman--it is supposed

he had a certain talent--it was entirely directed to



bookkeeping--no accountant in London could understand a word of

any of his books; and then there was Morris, who is perfectly



incompetent. And now it is worth very little. Morris tried to

sell it last year; and Pogram and Jarris offered only four



thousand.'

'I shall turn my attention to leather,' said Michael with



decision.

'You?' asked Joseph. 'I advise you not. There is nothing in the



whole field of commerce more surprising than the fluctuations of

the leather market. Its sensitiveness may be described as



morbid.'

'And now, Uncle Joseph, what have you done with all that money?"



asked the lawyer.

'Paid it into a bank and drew twenty pounds,' answered Mr



Finsbury promptly. 'Why?'

'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 you; you have no call to support

me.'



'That's all right,' said Michael; 'I'll probably get it out of

the leather business.'



And having taken down the old gentleman's address, Michael left

him at the corner of a street.



'What a wonderful old muddler!' he reflected, 'and what a

singular thing is life! I seem to be condemned to be the



instrument of Providence. Let me see; what have I done today?

Disposed of a dead body, saved Pitman, saved my Uncle Joseph,






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