He would not give one shilling to Captain Val; he would not advance another shilling to Undy; and he would at once sell out his own shares, and make such immediate restitution as might now be in his power.

The mention of Manylodes and the mining shares had come home to him with frightful reality, and nearly stunned him.
What right, indeed, had he to talk of bribes with scorn--he who so early in his own life had allowed himself to be bought?
How could he condemn the itching palm of such a one as Val Scott--he who had been so ready to open his own when he had been tempted by no want, by no poverty?
He would give nothing to Captain Val to bribe him to silence.

He knew that if he did so, he would be a slave for ever.

The appetite of such a shark as that, when once he has tasted blood, is unappeasable.

There is nothing so ruinous as buying the silence of a rogue who has a secret.
What you buy you never possess; and the price that is once paid must be repaid again and again, as often as the rogue may demand it.