Home reached, Larry briefly recounted his experience at Headquarters
to Hunt and the Duchess. The painter whistled; the Duchess blinked and
said nothing at all.
"Maggie was more right than she knew when she first said you were
facing a tough proposition!" exclaimed Hunt. "Believe me, young
fellow, you're certainly up against it!"
"Can you beat it for irony!" said Larry, pacing the floor. "A man
wants to go straight. His pals ask him to be a crook, and are sore
because he won't be a crook. The police ask him to be a crook, and
threaten him because he doesn't want to be a crook. Some situation!"
"Some situation!" repeated Hunt. "What're you going to do?"
"Do?" Larry halted, his face set with defiant determination. "I'm
going to keep on doing exactly what I've been doing! And they can all
go to hell!"
CHAPTER X
For several days nothing seemed to be happening, though Larry had a
sense that unknown forces were gathering on distant isothermal lines
and bad weather was bearing down upon him. During these days, trying
to ignore that formless trouble, he gave himself with a most rigid
determination to his new routine--the routine which he counted on to
help him into the way of great things.
Every day he saw Maggie; sometimes he was in her company for an hour
or more.
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