Luker didn't profess to know how. If Mr. Godfrey had accepted his
terms, Mr. Godfrey would have made him an accomplice, and might have
counted on his silence as on a certainty. As things were, Mr. Luker
must be guided by his own interests. If awkward inquiries were made, how
could he be expected to compromise himself, for the sake of a man who
had declined to deal with him?
Receiving this reply, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite did, what all animals (human
and otherwise) do, when they find themselves caught in a trap. He looked
about him in a state of helpless despair. The day of the month, recorded
on a neat little card in a box on the money-lender's chimney-piece,
happened to attract his eye. It was the twenty-third of June. On the
twenty-fourth he had three hundred pounds to pay to the young gentleman
for whom he was trustee, and no chance of raising the money, except
the chance that Mr. Luker had offered to him. But for this miserable
obstacle, he might have taken the Diamond to Amsterdam, and have made a
marketable commodity of it, by having it cut up into separate stones. As
matters stood, he had no choice but to accept Mr. Luker's terms.
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