The Duchess alone moved; she turned her
head and held her sunken eyes upon her grandson.
Simultaneously the two men and Maggie stood up.
"The hell you say!" grated Barney Palmer.
"Larry, you gone crazy?" cried Old Jimmie.
Maggie moved a pace nearer him. "Going to go straight?" she asked
incredulously.
"Listen, all of you," Larry said quietly. "No, Jimmie, I've not gone
crazy. I'm merely going a little sane. You just said I was a wonder at
business, Jimmie. I think I am myself. I thought it all over as a
business proposition. Suppose we clean up fifty or a hundred thousand
on a big deal. We've got to split it several ways, perhaps pay a big
piece to the police for protection, perhaps pay a lot of lawyers, and
then perhaps get sent away for a year or several years, during which
we don't take in a nickel. I figured that over a term of years my
average income was mighty small. As a business man it seemed to me
that I was in a poor business, with no future. So I decided to get
into a new business that had a future. That's the size of it."
"You're turning yellow--that's the real size of it!" snarled Barney
Palmer, half starting toward him.
"Better be a little careful, Barney," Larry warned with tightening
jaw.
"You really mean, Larry," demanded Old Jimmie, "that you're going to
drop us after us counting on you and waiting for you so long?"
"I'm sorry about having kept you waiting, Jimmie.
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