“Really, now? Quite a stroke of luck, this—looking for some one else, you know. So your memory has gone off a bit, eh? Most extra’nary, memory! Now, the moment I saw you, I told myself there was my old friend Gunnar Hanson. And what may you be doing in Blighty, Gunnar? Hadn’t you fancied it might be a bit unhealthy here, eh?”
“I—I’m going through,” said Larson in a strangled voice. “To the Continent. I’ve made my pile in the States—I’m going through. Not stopping at all.”
“Ah, but you’re mistaken about that!” said the other pleasantly. “Badly mistaken, old thing! A little matter—what was the name? Inspector Bagwell, wasn’t it? I remember his funeral quite well. I promised his widow that I’d bag you some day!” Smiling cheerfully at his victim, the Englishman put his cigarette between his lips and puffed at it—unfortunately for himself. For Larson, though white as a sheet, lashed out a blow as swift and unexpected as the stroke of a snake.
Larson lashed out a blow as swift and unexpected as the stroke of a snake
One short, swift blow—no more. To it, the Englishman crumpled up and sagged limply to one side. Larson’s fist showed the gleam of knuckles, as he darted up and to the door. He drew the blue curtains, then whirled, and stared at Durant with a face of desperation.
Durant was laughing—the mad humor of it struck him in a wave. Here was a murderer, a criminal with a record; and Makoff had picked on him as an innocent victim!
“Well, what about it?” snarled the voice of Larson. The latter was suddenly transformed—the shrewd, gentle, unsophisticated old man had become a crouching, desperate enemy of society. “What you going to do, huh? My only chance was to stop his mouth. You heard him—it was fifteen years ago! They’d nab me for that. You’re a lord—you can save me or not. What about it?”
Durant’s mirth was abruptly banished, and he stared at Larson. The man actually believed Makoff’s story, then.
“I’m no policeman,” he said. “I suppose you’ve been a virtuous angel the past fifteen years, eh? Really a manufacturer?”