Not hard to find who files for them. Possible to meet that girl or one of the girls. And you might — I might — get the dope from her.”
“Would you?”
Her eyes rested on him. “Try? Sure, Duff! Why not? I’m more worried than you seem to be. I think your experiments were right. I think my idea that the stuff is being brought into this country is true. I’m scared!”
What a reply Duff might have made was prevented by a distant roar, a whispering gush. It was a familiar South Florida effect: the approach of rain. Duff’s arms and legs made wide, loose-jointed motions as he flung himself from the kitchen chair to the back door and out into the yard. A moment later a mattress thudded on the kitchen floor, then another and a third.
When the squall dinned on the single roof of the old house, Duff returned. “Narrow squeak,” he said.
Harry came in behind him. They hadn’t heard his car in the rain.
The next few days were uneventful for Duff— classes, laboratory work, hard study at home and, of course, more domestic duties than he could perform adequately. In Florida, grass grows all year around and must be mowed and trimmed unrelentingly; shrubs and vines and trees also need frequent trimming. In Florida, the blazing sun and salty air make painting as constant a requirement as on shipboard. In Florida, too, fish breed year-round, a fact which was to lead Duff to a new and painful experience. For some time, however, life went on in its usual pattern.
Harry Ellings even volunteered one day to help Duff. “Son,” he said, “I generally wake around six. Leave the clippers out and I’ll get after those hibiscus bushes.”
“That’d be a help.”
The older man shook his head sympathetically. “Having money is a wonderful thing.