(This is the seventeenth in the sequence of novels related by Lewis Elsberger. The complete work, in 30 or 40 volumes, will have the title of Newcomers and Old-Timers.)

PART NINE: THE PLAN MATURES

Chapter 46: Offer Of A Cigarette

I was mildly surprised when Artie Brown invited me for what, in his rather dated slang, he described as “a natter”. I knew, of course, that he was out again—news travels rapidly in the closely-knit environment with which I had not entirely lost touch—but I assumed that, since I had ceased to be a professional burglar, my company might have lost some of its attraction for a man of such single-minded purpose as Artie. Before accepting, I mentioned the matter to Daisy, who was now sleeping at my flat when her work kept her too late to find a taxi.

“I should go,” she said, sipping an early afternoon gin. “There might be—well, shall we say, something in it for you.”

“There might be a complication,” I demurred.

We were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone, its note peculiarly high and shrill in the small room. When Daisy had completed her arrangements for the evening, I said: “Should you go, nevertheless?”