With this he lapsed into silence, waiting calmly for directions. He was quite ready, as I knew, either to throw the visitor out bodily or to make him at home, whichever he was told. Aside from myself, matters of ethics did not trouble Larry in the slightest, and it was this quality in him that had brought back to me the power to laugh.
“What does he want? Do you know?” I asked.
“That I don’t, sor. There’s a lackadaisical air about him, an’ yet I’ve a notion he’s used to havin’ his way, sor. He wud not tell me more than just that he wanted to be seein’ ye, an’ see ye he wud!”
The name conveyed nothing to me, and it was not until I entered my small drawing-room and my visitor rose to his feet that I placed him. I had seen him once or twice hanging round the police station when my search had taken me there, and had also met him once at the house of some friends. I had put him down as a bit of a lounge lizard, his dress and manner of speech giving me that impression rather than his face. So, after shaking hands, I waited with some interest and secret amusement to learn what he wanted with me.
“How do you do, Mr. Clayton?” he began in his mincing voice. Then he glanced at Larry, who was hovering about in the background. “May I have—er—five minutes of your time—alone?”
“I suppose so,” I answered, smiling. “You can go, Larry. Sit down Mr.—Moore, isn’t it?”
Chapter II.
“The Shadow of the Web”
My visitor nodded and sank gracefully into a chair, leaning back negligently. But as soon as the door had closed on Larry he seemed to stiffen in a surprising manner, his negligence dropped from him and he leaned forward with a certain eagerness. There was a force about him now of which I had not been conscious before.
“Mr. Clayton,” he began, “I want to talk to you about your own affairs—and I can only hope that you will hear me out before you resent the apparent impertinence. I assure you that there is a reason—and a good one—for my action. Have I your leave to go on?”
I nodded shortly. “Let’s hear what’s on your mind,” I told him. “But I won’t guarantee not to resent any impertinence, as you call it,” I added grimly.