"If Mr. Bascomb once had trouble
in his life, but is living honestly now, it would be criminal of me to
expose such a secret that he wouldn't want known. Mr. Bascomb's past is
none of my business."
"I'm mighty glad to hear you talk that way about it," said Prescott,
resting a hand on Reade's shoulder.
"Why?" demanded Tom rather bluntly. "Did you think that I could feel any
other way about it?"
"But Evarts is pretty sure to talk a lot about Bascomb, now," hinted the
young army officer.
"If he does," sighed Tom, "I don't know that I can think of any way to
stop the fellow."
"Then you don't believe that Mr. Bascomb's evil record of past years
affects his honesty now?" Dick went on after a long pause.
"I don't believe it," Tom answered with unusual emphasis. "If I did it
would be as much as if I said that a fellow who once makes a wrong step
must never hope to get back into the right path again. Mr. Prenter, I am
certain, is an honest man and an unusually keen one. He is satisfied to
trust Mr. Bascomb as president of the company. But, if Evarts is some
sort of family connection of Bascomb's, and if he has often threatened to
tell all about Mr. Bascomb's past history, you can imagine the terror that
poor Mr.
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