With the air of a man who knows his own mind he pulled open the wire screen-door and strode in.
Two minutes later he emerged, breathing hard, but with the glitter of determination in his eye.
"I wouldn't 've believed I could get away with it. Here goes for the next promising opening."
He headed for Sothern and Lee's drug-store.
"Wonder what that fellow would have said if I'd had the nerve to wait and listen...."
In the drug-store he experienced less difficulty in making his speech and exit; he flattered himself that he accomplished both gracefully, even impressively. And indeed you may believe he left a gaping audience behind him. So likewise at Godfrey's notions and stationery shop.
As he emerged from the latter the resonant clamour of the Methodist Church clock drove him home for dinner, hungry and glowing with self-approbation. At all events, no one had refused him: he had not been set upon and incontinently kicked out. He felt that he was getting on.
"Now this afternoon," he mused, "I'll wind up the job. By night everyone in town will know I want work."
But if he had thought a moment he would have realised that he might have spared himself the trouble; the consummation he so earnestly desired was already being brought about by resident and recognised, if unofficial, agents for the dissemination of news.
It was two o'clock or thereabouts, I gather, when, shaping his course toward Radville's commercial centre, Duncan hesitated on the corner of Beech Street, cocking an incredulous eye up at the weather-worn sign which has for years adorned the side of Tuthill's grocery: a hand indicating fixedly: