Ferret obeyed.
"We shall not go into details tonight," declared Judge. "There will be plenty of time — after you have acclimated yourself to Middletown. But remember, Ferret, this is a small city. It has its own ways, and you must accustom yourself to them. Middletown is not New York." The comparison was an apt one; though Judge did not realize it, it made an immediate impression upon Ferret, who was fresh from his New York adventure.
Judge, still speaking quietly, rang a bell. The maid entered.
"Mr. Hawkins will remain for dinner," announced Judge.
Ferret was thinking, wondering what lay ahead in Middletown. Judge was his leader, a man whom Ferret feared and obeyed.
His inability to foresee the future made Ferret's mind swing to the past — to the last day on the yacht, when they had drank the health of Judge — to the instructions given him by Major — to his defiance of those orders, and the resulting fight at Antrim's.
Judge was finishing his work at the desk, and Ferret's thoughts were miles away. His half-closed eyes were picturing the wounded form of Daniel Antrim, the menacing figure of Solly Bricker— Then, into Ferret's mind, came speculation over the strange outcome of the fray.
It was a matter that had troubled him ever since he had read the first report in the Detroit newspaper. Who had brought the battle to its strange ending? Who could have entered to deal death and destruction — then to escape before the police arrived?
As though endowed with clairvoyance. Ferret was visualizing someone in back of the grim game at Antrim's — a figure of power and of vengeance. As Judge began to speak, Ferret brought himself back to his surroundings, and the momentary vision faded from his mind. Ferret was laughing at his own fears. Yet in that moment, he had been near to the truth. Safe from gangdom, safe from the law, Ferret could not be free from a man who knew both — yet worked with neither.
Crafty though Ferret had been, his escape and his new environment could not remain unknown to The Shadow!