The next morning as she was coming in with milk for her breakfast coffee, she met Larry in the Duchess's room behind the pawnshop. He smilingly planted himself squarely in her way.
“See here, Maggie—aren't you ever going to speak to a fellow?”
Something within her surged up impelling1 her to tell him of Barney's savage2 yet unformulated threat. The warning got as far as her tongue, and there halted, struggling.
Her strange, fixed3 look startled Larry. “Why, what's the matter, Maggie?” he exclaimed.
But her pride, her settled determination to unbend to him in no way and to have no dealings with him, were stronger than her impulse; and the struggling warning remained unuttered.
“Nothing's the matter,” she said, and brushed past him and hurried up the stairway.
At times during the day, while tutoring with Mr. Bronson, Larry thought of Maggie's strange look. And his mind was upon it late in the afternoon when he entered the little street. But as he neared his grandmother's house all such thought was banished4 by Detective Gavegan of the Central Office stepping from the pawnshop and blocking the door with his big figure. There was grim, triumphant5 purpose on the hard features of Gavegan, conceited6 by nature and trained to harsh dominance by long rule as a petty autocrat7.
“Hello, Gavegan,” Larry greeted him pleasantly. “Gee, but you look tickled8! Did the Duchess give you a bigger loan than you expected on the Carnegie medal you just hocked?”
“You'll soon be cuttin' out your line of comedy.” Gavegan slipped his left arm through Larry's right. “You're comin' along with me, and you'd better come quiet.”
Larry stiffened9. “Come where?”
“Headquarters.”
“I haven't done a thing, Gavegan, and you know it! What do you want me for?”
“Me and the Chief had a little talk about you,” leered Gavegan. “And now the Chief wants to have a little personal talk with you. He asked me to round you up and bring you in.”
“I've done nothing, and I'll not go!” Larry cried hotly.
“Oh, yes, you will!” Gavegan withdrew his right hand from his coat pocket where it had been resting in readiness. In the hand, its thong10 about his wrist, was a short leather-covered object filled with lead. “I've got my orders, and you'll come peaceably, or—But I'd just as soon you'd resist, for I owe you something for the punch you slipped over on me the other night.”
Larry, taut11 with the desire to strike, gazed for a moment into the glowering12 face of the detective. Gavegan, gripping his right arm, with that bone-crushing slug-shot itching13 for instant use, was apparently14 master in the present circumstances. But before Larry's quick mind had decided15 upon a course, the door of the pawnshop opened and closed, and a voice said sharply:
“Nothing doing on that rough stuff, Gavegan!” The speaker was now on Larry's left side, a heavy-faced man in a black derby. “Larry, better be a nice boy and come with us.”
“Oh, it's you, Casey!” said Larry. “If you say I've got to go, I'll go—for you're one white copper16, even if you do have Gavegan for a partner. Come on. What're we standing17 here for?”
The trio made their way out of the narrow street, and after some fifteen minutes of walking through the twisting byways of that part of the city, they passed through the granite18 doorway19 at Headquarters and entered the office of Deputy Commissioner20 Barlow, Chief of the Detective Bureau. Barlow was talking over the telephone in a growling21 staccato, and the three men sat down. After a moment Barlow banged the receiver upon its hook, and turned upon them. He had a clenched22, driving face, with small, commanding eyes. It was his boast that he got results, that it was his policy to make people do what you told 'em. He had no other code.
“Well, Brainard,” he snapped, “here you are again. What you up to now?”
“Going to try the straight game, Chief,” returned Larry.
“Don't try to put that old bunk23 over on me!”
“It's not bunk, Chief. It's the real stuff.”
“Cut it out, I say! Don't you suppose I had a clever bird like you picked up the minute you landed in the city, and have had you covered ever since? And if you are going straight, what about the session you had with Barney Palmer and Old Jimmie Carlisle the very night you blew in? And I'm on to this bluff25 of your going to that business institute. So come across, Brainard! I've got your every move covered!”
“I've already come across, Chief,” replied Larry, trying to keep his temper in the face of the other's bullying26 manner. “I told Barney and Old Jimmie that I was through with the old game, and through with them as pals27 at the old game—that's all there was to that meeting. I'm going to that business institute for the same reason that every other person goes there—to learn. That's all there is to the whole business, Chief: I'm going to go straight.”
Chief Barlow, hunched28 forward, his undershot jaw29 clenched on a cigar stub, regarded Larry steadily30 with his beady, autocratic eyes. Barlow was trained to penetrate31 to the inside of men's minds, and he recognized that Larry was in earnest.
“You mean you think you are going to go straight,” Barlow remarked slowly and meaningly.
“I know I am going to go straight,” Larry returned evenly, meeting squarely the gaze of the Chief of Detectives.
“Do you realize, young man,” Barlow continued in the same measured, significant tone, “that whether you go straight, and how you go straight, depends pretty much on me?”
“Mind making that a little clearer, Chief?”
“I'll show you part of my hand—just remember that I'm holding back my high cards. I don't believe you're going to go straight, so we'll start with the proposition that you're not going to run straight and work on from there. You're clever, Brainard—I hand you that; and all the classy crooks33 trust you. That's why I had picked you out for what I wanted long before you left stir. Brainard, you're wise enough to know that some of our best pinches come from tips handed us from the inside. Brainard”—the slow voice had now become incisive34, mandatory—“you're not going to go straight. You're going to string along with Barney and Old Jimmie and the rest of the bunch—we'll protect you—and you're going to slip us tips when something big is about to be pulled off.”
Larry, experienced with police methods though he was, could hardly believe this thing which was being proposed to him, Larry Brainard. But he controlled himself.
“If I get you, Chief, you are suggesting that I become a police stool?”
“Exactly. We'll never tip your hand. And any little thing you pull off on your own we'll not bother you about. And, besides, we'll slip you a little dough35 regular on the quiet.”
“And all you want me to do in exchange,” Larry asked quietly, “is to hand up my pals?”
“That's all.”
Larry found it required his all of strength to control himself; but he did.
“There are only three small objections to your proposition, Chief.”
“Yes?”
“The first is, I shall not be a stool.”
“What's that?”
“And the second is, I wouldn't squeal36 on a pal24 to you even if I were a crook32. And the third is what I said in the beginning: I'm not going to be a crook.”
Barlow's squat37, powerful figure arose menacingly. Casey also stood up.
“I tell you you ARE going to be a crook!” Barlow's big fist crashed down on his desk in a tremendous exclamation38 point. “And you're going to work for me exactly as I tell you!”
“I have already given you my final word,” said Larry.
“You—you—” Barlow almost choked at this quiet defiance39. His face turned red, his breath came in a fluttering snarl40, his powerful shoulders hunched up as if he were about to strike. But he held back his physical blows.
“That's your ultimatum41?”
“If you care to call it so—yes.”
“Then here's mine! I told you I was holding back my high cards. Either you do as I say, and work with Gavegan and Casey, or you'll not be able to hold a job in New York! My men will see to that. And here's another high card. You do as I've said, or I'll hang some charge on you, one that'll stick, and back up the river you'll go for another stretch! There's an ultimatum for you to think about!”
It certainly was. Larry gazed into the harsh, glaring face, set in fierce determination. He knew that Barlow, as part of his policy, loved to break down the spirit of criminals; and he knew that nothing so roused Barlow as opposition42 from a man he considered in his power. Close beside the Chief he saw the gloating, malignant43 face of Gavegan; Casey, who had been restless since the beginning of the scene, had moved to the window and was gazing down into Center Street.
For a moment Larry did not reply. Barlow mistook Larry's silence for wavering, or the beginning of an inclination44 to yield.
“You turn that over in your noodle,” Barlow drove on. “You're going to go crooked45, anyhow, so you might as well go crooked in the only way that's safe for you. I'm going to have Gavegan and Casey watch you, and if in the next few days you don't begin to string along with Barney and Old Jimmie and that bunch, and if you don't get me word that your answer to my proposition is 'yes,' hell's going to fall on you! Now get out of here!”
Larry got out. He was liquid lava46 of rage inside; but he had had enough to do with police power to know that it would help him not at all to permit an eruption47 against a police official while he was in the very heart of the police stronghold.
He walked back toward his own street in a fury, beneath which was subconsciously48 an element of uneasiness: an uneasiness which would have been instantly roused to caution had he known that Barney Palmer had this hour and more been following him in a taxicab, and that across the street from the car's window Barney's sharp face had watched him enter Police Headquarters and had watched him emerge.
Home reached, Larry briefly49 recounted his experience at Headquarters to Hunt and the Duchess. The painter whistled; the Duchess blinked and said nothing at all.
“Maggie was more right than she knew when she first said you were facing a tough proposition!” exclaimed Hunt. “Believe me, young fellow, you're certainly up against it!”
“Can you beat it for irony50!” said Larry, pacing the floor. “A man wants to go straight. His pals ask him to be a crook, and are sore because he won't be a crook. The police ask him to be a crook, and threaten him because he doesn't want to be a crook. Some situation!”
“Some situation!” repeated Hunt. “What're you going to do?”
“Do?” Larry halted, his face set with defiant51 determination. “I'm going to keep on doing exactly what I've been doing! And they can all go to hell!”
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收听单词发音
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1
impelling
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| adj.迫使性的，强有力的v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的现在分词 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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autocrat
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| n.独裁者；专横的人 | |
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tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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thong
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| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
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taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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glowering
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| v.怒视( glower的现在分词 ) | |
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itching
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| adj.贪得的，痒的，渴望的v.发痒( itch的现在分词 ) | |
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14
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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15
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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16
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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17
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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21
growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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bullying
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| v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈 | |
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27
pals
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| n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙 | |
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28
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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29
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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30
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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31
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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32
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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33
crooks
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| n.骗子( crook的名词复数 )；罪犯；弯曲部分；（牧羊人或主教用的）弯拐杖v.弯成钩形( crook的第三人称单数 ) | |
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incisive
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| adj.敏锐的，机敏的，锋利的，切入的 | |
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35
dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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36
squeal
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| v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音 | |
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37
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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38
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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39
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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40
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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41
ultimatum
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| n.最后通牒 | |
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42
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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43
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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44
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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45
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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46
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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47
eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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48
subconsciously
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| ad.下意识地，潜意识地 | |
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49
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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50
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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51
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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