There WAS need of this "original cost"-- instant need--something he had entirely forgotten.

Jemima would soon need it--perhaps needed it at that very minute.

He had, it was true, often kept her waiting: but that was when he could pay at his pleasure; now, perhaps, he couldn't pay at all.
"All right, Gadgem," he said slowly, a far-away, thoughtful look on his face--"come to think of it I don't need two guns of this calibre, and I am quite willing to let this one go, if it will oblige your friend." Here Todd breathed a sigh of relief so loud and deep that his master turned his head in inquiry.

"As to the price--I'll look that up.

Come and see me again in a day or two.