Saltash sent him a quizzical glance as his cigar kindled. "Prepared to
turn me down at all points?" he suggested.
Jake's mouth relaxed a little. "Prepared to listen anyway," he said.
"It's to do with young Bunny, I take it."
Saltash leaned back in his chair with a laugh. "Very smart of you! Bunny
certainly is my first proposition. What are you going to do with him?"
Jake also leaned back, and smoked for several seconds in silence. Saltash
watched him with semi-comic curiosity.
"Something of a problem, eh?" he said, after a pause.
Jake's eyes came to him and remained upon him with steady insistence.
"He's not going to turn into a fancy-dress loafer, my lord," he said at
length in his soft, deliberate voice. "I'll see to that anyway."
"Don't be nasty, Jake!" protested Saltash with a smile. "I'm not
proposing to adopt him. But I can give him employment, if that's what
he's wanting. What do you want to make of him?"
Jake's steady look remained upon him. "Just an honest man, I reckon," he
said.
"Ah! Quite so!" Open mockery gleamed back at him from Saltash's
half-closed eyes. "All contaminating influences to be kept away. Is that
it?"
Jake was silent.
Saltash sent a cloud of smoke upwards before he spoke again.
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