Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/29

 but Kestner stopped him. Then he turned to the thick-shouldered man at the desk.

"Let me explain something to you," he began in his cool and even tones. "You know what our work is. It's a bit like tiger-shooting, seductive enough, but still dangerous. It has, as you say, a great deal of rough-neck work, and now and then an occasional risk. When you're young, you're glad enough to face those risks. There's a thrill about it. But to keep on at it, once you're nearing forty, you've got to have a spark of youth that won't go out. You've got to nurse your streak of romance. Now, the trouble is, I find my spark going out. The work doesn't seem romantic to me any more. It seems nearly always humdrum, and very often underhand."

"It's necessary work," interrupted the other. "So is scavenging. And I feel I've done about enough of it."

"Then keep it up," persisted the chief, "by helping us clear away this final mess."

"But I'm tired of messes like this. I'm tired of the types they bring you in contact with. I'm tired of the way they have to be rounded up. I'm tired of crook-warrens and gun-play and wire-tapping.