should I?

"'Is your name Croft?' he said.

"'Ay,' I answered.

"'So is mine,' he went on with a sort of drunken leer. 'I'm your
brother.'

"'Are you?' I said, beginning to get my back up, for I guessed what his
game was, 'and what may you be after? I tell you at once, and to your
face, that if you are my brother you are a blackguard, and I don't want
to know you or have anything to do with you; and if you are not, I beg
your pardon for coupling you with such a scoundrel.'

"'Oh, that's your tune, is it?' he said with a sneer. 'Well, now,
my dear brother Silas, I want my children. They have got a little
half-brother at home--for I have married again, Silas--who is anxious to
have them to play with, so if you will be so good as to hand them over,
I'll take them away at once.'

"'You'll take them away, will you?' said I, all of a tremble with rage
and fear.

"'Yes, Silas, I will. They are mine by law, and I am not going to
breed children for you to have the comfort of their society. I've taken
advice, Silas, and that's sound law,' and he leered at me again.

"I stood and looked at that man, and thought of how he had treated those
poor children and their young mother, and my blood boiled, and I grew