Larry came instantly to her rescue with almost imperceptible ease.

“Dinner!” he exclaimed, gazing at the miscellany of dishes on the table.  “Am I invited?”

“Invited?” said Hunt.  “You’re the guest of honor.”

“Then might the guest of honor beg the privilege of cleaning up a bit?” Larry drew his right hand from his coat pocket, where it had been all this while, and started to unwind the handkerchief which he had wound about his knuckles as he had crossed from the pier.

“Is your hand hurt much?” Maggie inquired eagerly.

“Just skinned my knuckles.”

“How?”

“They happened to connect with a flatfoot’s jaw while he was trying to make hypnotic passes at me.  He’s coming to about now.  Officer Gavegan.”

“Gavegan!” exclaimed Hunt.  “You picked a tough bird.  Young man, you’re off to a grand start—­a charge of assault on an officer the very day they turn you out of jail.”

Larry smiled.  “Gavegan is a dirty one, but he’ll make no charge of assault.  He claims to be heavy-weight champion boxer of the Police Department.  Put a fine crimp in his reputation, wouldn’t it, if he admitted in public that he’d been knocked out by a fellow, bare-handed, supposed to be weak from prison life, forty pounds lighter.  He’d get the grand razoo all along the line.  Oh, Gavegan will never let out a peep.”

“He’ll square things in some other way,” said Hunt.

“I suppose he’ll try,” Larry responded carelessly.  “Where’s the first-aid room?”

Hunt showed him through the curtains.  When he came out, Hunt, Maggie, and the Duchess were all engaged in getting the dinner upon the table.  Additional help would only be interference, so Larry’s eyes wandered casually to the canvases standing in the shadows against the walls.

“Mr. Hunt,” he remarked, “you seem to have earned a very real reputation of its sort in the neighborhood.  Old Isaac downstairs told me you were crazy—­said they called you ’Nuts’—­said you were the worst painter that ever happened.”

“Yeh, that’s what they say,” agreed Hunt.

“They certainly are awful, Larry,” put in Maggie, coming to his side.  “Father thinks they are jokes, and father certainly knows pictures.  Just look at a few of them.”

“Yeh, look at ’em and have a good laugh,” invited Hunt.

Larry carried the portrait of the Duchess to beneath the swinging electric bulb and examined it closely.  Maggie, at his shoulder, waited for his mirth; and Hunt regarded him with a sidelong gaze.  But Larry did not laugh.  He silently returned the picture, and then examined the portrait of Old Jimmie—­then of Maggie—­then of the Italian madonna, throned on her curbstone.  He replaced this last and crossed swiftly to Hunt.  Maggie watched this move in amazement.

Larry faced the big painter.  His figure was tense, his features hard with suspicion.  That moment one could understand why he was sometimes called “Terrible Larry”; just then he looked a devastating explosion that was still unexploded.