ows.

"That's your ultimatum?"

"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 opposition from a man he considered in his power. Close
beside the Chief he saw the gloating, malignant 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 inclination to yield.

"You turn that over in your noodle," Barlow drove on. "You're going
to go crooked, 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 lava 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 eruption 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
subconsciously 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 briefly 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
ce