The City in the Sea by H. De Vere Stacpoole

Bobby got a bus from Oxford Circus to Charing Cross. It was after twelve when he reached Cadogan Street and turning on the electric light in his sitting-room, sat down to smoke, to think, and to plan.

It seemed to him that he had never come against the real things of life till now. Up to this he had followed the grooves worn and polished by other men. Even in story-writing he had followed custom, the advice of experts and the leading of his literary agent. Here was a business in which no other people were engaged, where there were no rules to follow, and where a mistake might land him in worse than difficulties. He would have to manufacture his own mechanism, guide it and direct it.