第75章

"That's the signal for you to be on your way, Larry Brainard!" Barney snapped at him triumphantly.

Larry realized, all of a sudden, that his coming here was no more than a splendid gesture to which his anger had excited him. Indeed there was nothing for him but to be on his way.

"I've told you the truth, Maggie; and you'll be sorry that you have not left--if not sorry soon, then sorry a little later."

He turned to Barney with a last shot; he could not leave the gloating Barney Palmer his unalloyed triumph. "I told you I had the straight dope on you, Barney. Here's some more of it. I know exactly what your game is, and I know exactly who your sucker is. We'll see if you put it over--you squealer! Good-night, all."

With that Larry walked out. Old Jimmie regarded his partner with suspicion.

"How about that, Barney--you being a stool and a squealer?" he demanded.

"I tell you it's all a lie--a damned lie!" cried Barney with feverish emphasis.

"I hope it is!" breathed Old Jimmie.

This was a subject Barney wanted to get away from. "Maggie," he demanded, "is what Larry Brainard said about how he came here the truth?--his seeing you on the street and then following you here?"

"How do I know where he first saw me?"

"But is to-night the first time you've seen him?"

"It is."

"Sure you haven't been seeing him?" demanded Barney's quick jealousy.

"I have not."

"Did he tell you where he came from?--where he hangs out?"

"No."

Old Jimmie interrupted this cross-examination.

"You're wasting good time asking these questions. Barney, do you realize the cold fact that it's not a good thing for you, nor for us, for Larry Brainard to be back in New York, floating around as he pleases?"

"I should say not!" Barney saw he was facing a sudden crisis, and in the need for quick action he spoke without thought of Maggie. "We've got to look after him at once!"

"Tell the bunch he's back, and let them take care of him?" suggested Old Jimmie.

Barney considered rapidly. If Larry knew of his arrangement with the police, then perhaps his secret was beginning to leak through to others. He decided that for the present it would be wiser to keep from these old friends and allies.

"Not the bunch--the police!" he said inspiredly. "They're after him, anyhow, and are sore. All we've got to do is slip them word--they'll do the rest!" And then with the sharper emphasis of an immediate plan:

"We don't want to lose a minute. I know where Gavegan hangs out at this time of night. Come on!"

With a bare "Good-night" to Maggie the two men hurried forth on their pressing mission. Left to herself, Maggie sank into a chair and wildly considered the many elements of this new situation. Presently two thoughts emerged to dominance: Whether Larry was right or wrong, he had risked coming out of his safety for her sake--perhaps had risked all he had won for her sake. And now the police were to be set after him, with that Gavegan heading the pack.

Perhaps the further thinking Maggie did did not result in cool, mature wisdom--for her thoughts were the operations of a panicky mind.

Somehow she had to get warning to Larry of this imminent police hunt!

Without doubt Larry would return to Cedar Crest sometime that night.

Word should be sent to him there. A letter was too uncertain in such a crisis. Of course she had an invitation to go to Cedar Crest the following afternoon, and she might warn him then--but that might be too late. She dared not telephone or telegraph--for that might somehow direct dangerous attention to the exact spot where Larry was hidden.

Also she had an instinct, operating unconsciously long before she had any thought of what she was eventually to do, not to let Barney or Old Jimmie find out, or even guess, that she had warned Larry--not yet.

There seemed nothing that she herself could do. Then she thought of the Duchess. That was the way out! The Duchess would know some way in which to get Larry word.

Five minutes later, in her plainest suit and hat, Maggie in a taxicab was rolling down toward the Duchess's--from where, only a few months back, she had started forth upon her great career.