The Climbers Part 8

WARDEN. Made you her agent?

STERLING. Yes! What a G.o.dsend! Hunter didn't leave a cent.

[_A moment's pause of astonishment._]

WARDEN. What do you mean?

STERLING. It seems he's been losing for a long time. Everything he had he lost in the copper crash.

WARDEN. But this is awful! What will Mrs. Hunter and her two young daughters do?

STERLING. I don't know. I hadn't thought of that.

WARDEN. You'll have to think of it.

STERLING. I?

WARDEN. Of course you'll have to help them.

STERLING. I can't! Look here, I didn't tell you the truth about my affairs last week, when I struck you for that loan.

WARDEN. You don't mean to say you weren't straight with me?

STERLING. Oh, I only didn't want to frighten you till I'd got the money; if you had made me the loan, I'd have owned up afterwards all right enough.

WARDEN. Owned up what?

STERLING. That I told you a pack of lies--that I haven't any security!--that I haven't anything but _debts_.

WARDEN. [_Strongly._] Good things to borrow on! Look here, d.i.c.k, how long have we been friends?

STERLING. Since that day at boarding school when you took a licking for something I did.

WARDEN. What I mean is we were pals at school, chums at college, stanch friends for twenty years.

STERLING. h.e.l.l! Are we as old as all that?

WARDEN. Inseparable friends till the last two years.

[STERLING'S _eyes shift._

STERLING. I've been overworked lately, and everything has gone wrong!

WARDEN. [_Comes up to him, and speaks firmly but still friendly._] You _yourself_ have _gone wrong_!

STERLING. [_On the defensive._] What do you mean?

WARDEN. Why did you take your business out of my hands?

STERLING. The law didn't pay me enough. I thought I'd try a little amateur stockbroking.

[_Smiling insincerely._

WARDEN. You didn't want _me to know_ what you were doing!

STERLING. Rats!

WARDEN. You didn't want me to know what funds--_whose_ funds--you were using--_mis_using.

STERLING. [_Ugly._] What!

WARDEN. Whose money you were gambling with!

STERLING. Have you been spying on me?

WARDEN. Your _wife's_ money!

STERLING. Well, she's _my_ wife, and you don't know what you're talking about!

[_He turns from him and picks up a book from the table upside down and pretends to read it._

WARDEN. You stole from me once when you were a boy!

STERLING. No! I didn't!

[_Throwing the book down._

WARDEN. You lie! Do you hear me? _You lie!_ [_He waits a second._ STERLING _does nothing._] I was never sure till to-day! I fought against ever thinking it, believing my suspicions were an injustice to you, but little things were always disappearing out of my rooms--finally, even money. Lately, that old suspicion has come back with a fuller force, and to-day it became a certainty.

STERLING. How to-day?

WARDEN. Because if it weren't true, you'd have knocked me down just now when I called you first a thief and _twice_ a liar!

[_He stands squarely facing him._ STERLING _stands facing him also, surprised, taken off his guard._

STERLING. Oh, come, you're joking! [WARDEN _makes an angry exclamation._] Why're you telling me all this now?

WARDEN. Because I want you to be careful. I want you to know some one is watching you! Some one who knows what you've come to! Some one who knows you can't resist temptation! Some one who knows money not yours _has_ stuck to your fingers!

STERLING. You mind your own business.

WARDEN. I'll mind _yours_ if it's necessary to protect people who are dear to me!

[STERLING _looks at him with a sudden suspicion._

STERLING. [_Insinuatingly._] I didn't know you were particularly attached to Mrs. Hunter.

WARDEN. I'm not.