along about the neat way they got revenge on us for the meeting, and
sort of take it for granted that the incident ended when they chased you
away from town. If he seems dubious and acts as if he meant to work on
the 'secret mission' idea just the same, I'll go in and call on Coligny
Smith. Oh, I'm not going to hit him. If I hadn't known that would be the
worst possible tactics, I'd have gone uptown at nine o'clock this
morning and yanked him out of bed by his long, lying ears. I'm only
going to talk to him in a kindly way. He told us himself that he was out
for the hard money, you know."
"All right," said Varney.
Peter hesitated. "You've _got_ to go in, I suppose? It's hard luck. Here
we are working overtime to build up the popular idea that you've quit
and gone back to New York. It'll be deuced awkward if that reporter nabs
you the minute you set foot in Hunston."
"I've got to risk it. I'll wait a while, though, and give them a chance
to drop the trail. And when I do go in, I'm not going with a brass
band."
"There's not the least hurry," said Peter. "You've got all the rest of
the day--to-morrow morning, too, for that matter. Wait here till you
hear from me, will you? Maybe I can turn up something which will save
you from having to go in at all."
Varney grinned. "Remember yesterday, Peter?--when you were coming back
at ten o'clock and came at four? No more unlimited contracts from me. It
is twenty minutes past one now. You can get in by two thirty if you
hustle. I must start in by half-past four. It wouldn't be safe to wait
any longer."
"Give me a show, will you? Make it five, anyway."
"Five, then. If you're not back on the dot, in I start for my call. Till
we meet again."
Peter started down the stair, hesitated, turned and came back again.
"Larry," he said, with sudden gruffness, "of course, we 've both been
thinking that if it hadn't been for me, none of this mess would have
happened. I kick myself when I think--"
"Drop it, Peter. Nobody in the world could have foreseen--"
"Every ass in the United States," said Maginnis, his ponderous foot on
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