Perry Mason Short Stories - 03

The Case of the Irate Witness

By

Erle Stanley Gardner

Contents

The Case of the Irate Witness

The Jeweled Butterfly

Something Like a Pelican

A Man is Missing

The Case of the Irate Witness

THE EARLY-MORNING SHADOWS cast by the mountains still lay heavily on the town's main street as the big siren on the roof of the Jebson Commercial Company began to scream shrilly.

The danger of fire was always present, and at the sound, men at breakfast rose and pushed their chairs back from the table, others who were shaving barely paused to wipe lather from their faces, and those who had been sleeping grabbed the first available garments. All of them ran to places where they could look for the first telltale wisps of smoke.

There was no smoke.

The big siren was still screaming urgently as the men formed into streaming lines, like ants whose hill has been attacked. The lines all moved toward the Jebson Commercial Company.

There the men were told that the doors of the big vault had been found wide open. A jagged hole had been cut into one door with an acetylene torch.

This was the fifteenth of the month. The big, twice-a-month payroll, which had been brought up from the Ivanhoe National Bank the day before, had been the prize. The men looked at one another silently.

Frank Bernal, manager of the company's mine, the man who ruled Jebson City with an iron hand, arrived and took

charge. The responsibility was his, and what he found was alarming.

Tom Munson, the night watchman, was lying on the floor in a back room, snoring in drunken slumber. The burglar alarm, which had been installed within the last six months, had been bypassed by means of an electrical device. This device was so ingenious that it was apparent that, if the work were that of a gang, at least one of the burglars was an expert electrician.

Ralph Nesbitt, the company accountant, was significantly silent. When Frank Bernal had been appointed manager a year earlier, Nesbitt had pointed out that the big vault was obsolete.

Bernal, determined to prove himself in his new job, had avoided the expense of tearing out the old vault and installing a new one by investing in an up-to-date burglar alarm and putting a special night watchman on duty.

Now the safe had been looted of 100,000 and Frank Bernal had to make a report to the main office in Chicago, with the disquieting knowledge that Ralph Nesbitt's memo stating the antiquated vault was a pushover was at this moment reposing in the company files.

Some distance out of Jebson City, Perry Mason, the famous trial lawyer, was driving fast along a mountain road. He had had plans for a weekend fishing trip for some time, but a jury which had waited until midnight before reaching its verdict had delayed Mason's departure and it was now eight-thirty in the morning.

His fishing clothes, rod, wading boots, and creel were all in the trunk. He was wearing the suit in which he had stepped from the courtroom, and having driven all night, he was eager for the cool, piny mountains.

A blazing red light, shining directly at him as he rounded a turn in the canyon road, dazzled his road-weary eyes. A sign, STOP—POLICE, had been placed in the middle of the road. Two men, a grim-faced man with a 30-30 rifle in his hands

.ind a silver badge on his shirt and a uniformed motorcycle officcr, stood beside the sign.

Mason stopped his car.

The man with the badge, a deputy sheriff, said, "We'd better lake a look at your driving license. There's been a big robbery at Jebson City."

" That so?" Mason said. "I went through Jebson City an hour ago and everything seemed quiet."

"Where you been since then?"

"I stopped at a little service station and restaurant for breakfast."

"Let's take a look at your driving license."

Mason handed it to him.

The man started to return it, then looked at it again. "Say," he said, "you're Perry Mason, the big criminal lawyer!"

"Not a criminal lawyer," Mason said patiently, "a trial lawyer. I sometimes defend men who are accused of crime."

"What are you doing up in this country?"

"Going fishing."

The deputy looked at him suspiciously. "Why aren't you wearing your fishing clothes?"

"Because," Mason said, and smiled, "I'm not fishing."

"You said you were going fishing."

"I also intend," Mason said, "to go to bed tonight. According to you, I should be wearing my pajamas."

The deputy frowned. The traffic officer laughed and waved Mason on.

The deputy nodded at the departing car. "Looks like a live clue to me," he said, "but I can't find it in that conversation."

"There isn't any," the traffic officer said.

The deputy remained dubious, and later on, when a news- hungry reporter from the local paper asked the deputy if he knew of anything that would make a good story, the deputy said that he did.

And that was why Della Street, Perry Mason's confidential secretary, was surprised to read stories in the metropolitan papers stating that Perry Mason, the noted trial lawyer, was ru- mored to have been retained to represent the person or persons who had looted the vault of the Jebson Commercial Company. All this had been arranged, it would seem, before Mason's "client" had even been apprehended.

When Perry Mason called his office by long distance the next afternoon, Della said, "I thought you were going to the mountains for a vacation."

"That's right. Why?"

"The papers claim you're representing whoever robbed the Jebson Commercial Company."

"First I've heard of it," Mason said. "I went through Jebson City before they discovered the robbery, stopped for breakfast a little farther on, and then got caught in a roadblock. In the eyes of some officious deputy, that seems to have made me an accessory after the fact."

"Well," Della Street said, "they've caught a man by the name of Harvey L. Corbin and apparently have quite a case against him. They're hinting at mysterious evidence which won't be disclosed until the time of trial."

"Was he the one who committed the crime?" Mason asked.

"The police think so. He has a criminal record. When his employers at Jebson City found out about it, they told him to leave town. That was the evening before the robbery."

"Just like that, eh?" Mason asked.

"Well, you see, Jebson City is a one-industry town, and the company owns all the houses. They're leased to the employees. I understand Corbin's wife and daughter were told they could stay on until Corbin got located in a new place, but Corbin was told to leave town at once. You aren't interested, are you?"

"Not in the least," Mason said, "except that when I drive back, I'll be going through Jebson City, and I'll probably stop to pick up the local gossip."

"Don't do it," she warned. "This man Corbin has all the earmarks of being an underdog, and you know how you feel about underdogs."

A quality in her voice made Perry suspicious. "You haven't been approached, have you, Della?"

"Well," she said, "in a way. Mrs. Corbin read in the papers that you were going to represent her husband, and she was overjoyed. It seems that she thinks her husband's implication in this is a raw deal. She hadn't known anything about his criminal record, but she loves him and is going to stand by him."

"You've talked with her?" Mason asked.

"Several times. I tried to break it to her gently. I told her it was probably nothing but a newspaper story. You see, Chief, they have Corbin dead to rights. They took some money from his wife as evidence. It was part of the loot."

"And she has nothing?"

"Nothing. Corbin left her forty dollars, and they took it all as evidence."

"I'll drive all night," he said. "Tell her I'll be back tomorrow."

"I was afraid of that," Della Street said. "Why did you have to call up? Why couldn't you have stayed up there fishing? Why did you have to get your name in the papers?"

Mason laughed and hung up.

Paul Drake, of the Drake Detective Agency, came in and sat in the big chair in Mason's office and said, "You have a bear by the tail, Perry."

"What's the matter, Paul? Didn't your detective work in Jebson City pan out?"

"It panned out all right, but the stuff in the pan isn't what you want, Perry," Drake explained.

"How come?"

"Your client's guilty."

"Go on," Mason said.

"The money he gave his wife was some of what was stolen from the vault."

"How do they know it was the stolen money0" Mason asked.

Drake pulled a notebook from his pocket. "Here's the whole picture. The plant manager runs Jebson City. There isn't any private property. The Jebson company controls everything."

"Not a single small business?"

Drake shook his head. "Not unless you want to consider garbage collecting as small business. An old coot by the name of George Addey lives five miles down the canyon he has a hog ranch and collects the garbage. He's supposed to have the first nickel he ever earned. Buries his money in cans. There's no bank nearer than Ivanhoe City."

"What about the burglary? The men who did it must have moved in acetylene tanks and—"

"They took them right out of the company store," Drake said. And then he went on "Munson, the watchman, likes to take a pull out of a flask of whiskey along about midnight. He says it keeps him awake. Of course, he's not supposed to do it, and no one was supposed to know about the whiskey, but someone did know about it. They doped the whiskey with a barbiturate. The watchman took his usual swig, went to sleep, and stayed asleep."

"What's the evidence against Corbin?" Mason asked.

"Corbin had a previous burglary record. It's a policy of the company not to hire anyone with a criminal record. Corbin lied about his past and got a job. Frank Bernal, the manager, found out about it, sent for Corbin about eight o'clock the night the burglary took place, and ordered him out of town. Bernal agreed to let Corbin's wife and child stay on in the house until Corbin could get located in another city. Corbin pulled out in the morning and gave his wife this money. It was part of the money from the burglary."

"How do they know?" Mason asked.

"Now there's something I don't know," Drake said. "This fellow Bernal is pretty smart, and the story is that he can prove Corbin's money was from the vault."

Drake paused, then continued "As I told you, the nearest bank is at Ivanhoe City, and the mine pays off in cash twice a month. Ralph Nesbitt, the cashier, wanted to install a new vault. Bernal refused to okay the expense. So the company has ordered both Bernal and Nesbitt back to its main office at Chicago to report. The rumor is that they may fire Bernal as manager and give Nesbitt the job. A couple of the directors don't like Bernal, and this thing has given them their chance. They dug out a report Nesbitt had made showing the vault was a pushover. Bernal didn't act on that report." He sighed and then asked, "When's the trial, Perry?"

"The preliminary hearing is set for Friday morning. I'll see then what they've got against Corbin."

"They're laying for you up there," Paul Drake warned. "Better watch out, Perry. That district attorney has something up his sleeve, some sort of surprise that's going to knock you for a loop."

In spite of his long experience as a prosecutor, Vernon Flasher, the district attorney of Ivanhoe County, showed a certain nervousness at being called upon to oppose Perry Mason. There was, however, a secret assurance underneath that nervousness.

Judge Haswell, realizing that the eyes of the community were upon him, adhered to legal technicalities to the point of being pompous both in rulings and mannerisms.

But what irritated Perry Mason was the attitude of the spectators. He sensed that they did not regard him as an attorney trying to safeguard the interests of a client, but as a legal magician with a cloven hoof. The looting of the vault had shocked the community, and there was a tight-lipped determination that no legal tricks were going to do Mason any good this time.

Vernon Flasher didn't try to save his surprise evidence for a whirlwind finish. He used it right at the start of the case.

Frank Bernal, called as a witness, described the location of the vault, identified photographs, and then leaned back as the district attorney said abruptly, "You had reason to believe this vault was obsolete?"

"Yes, sir."

"It had been pointed out to you by one of your fellow employees, Mr. Ralph Nesbitt?"

"Yes, sir."

"And what did you do about it?"

"Are you," Mason asked in some surprise, "trying to cross- examine your own witness?"

"Just let him answer the question, and you'll see," Flasher replied grimly.

"Go right ahead and answer," Mason said to the witness.

Bernal assumed a more comfortable position. "I did three things," he said, "to safeguard the payrolls and to avoid the expense of tearing out the old vault and installing a new vault in its place."

"What were those three things?"

"I employed a special night watchman, I installed the best burglar alarm money could buy, and I made arrangements with the Ivanhoe National Bank, where we have our payrolls made up, to list the number of each twenty-dollar bill which was a part of each payroll."

Mason suddenly sat up straight.

Flasher gave him a glance of gloating triumph. "Do you wish the court to understand, Mr. Bernal," he said smugly, "that you have the numbers of the bills in the payroll which was made up for delivery on the fifteenth?"

"Yes, sir. Not all the bills, you understand. That would have taken tco much time. But I have the numbers of all he twenty-dollar bills."

"And who recorded those numbers?" the prosecutor asked.

"The bank."

"And do you have that list of numbers with you?"

"I do. Yes, sir." Bernal produced a list. "I felt," he said, glancing coldly at Nesbitt, "that these precautions would be cheaper than a new vault."

"I move the list be introduced in evidence," Flasher said.

"Just a moment," Mason objected. "I have a couple of ques- tions. You say this list is not in your handwriting, Mr. Bernal?"

"Yes, sir."

"Whose handwriting is it, do you know?" Mason asked.

"The assistant cashier of the Ivanhoe National Bank."

"Oh, all right," Flasher said. "We'll do it the hard way, if we have to. Stand down, Mr. Bernal, and I'll call the assistant cashier."

Harry Reedy, assistant cashier of the Ivanhoe Bank, had the mechanical assurance of an adding machine. He identified the list of numbers as being in his handwriting. He stated that he had listed the numbers of the twenty-dollar bills and put that list in an envelope which had been sealed and sent up with the money for the payroll.

"Cross-examine," Flasher said.

Mason studied the list. "These numbers are all in your handwriting?" he asked Reedy.

"Yes, sir."

"Did you yourself compare the numbers you wrote down with the numbers on the twenty-dollar bills?"

"No, sir. I didn't personally do that. Two assistants did that. One checked the numbers as they were read off, one as I wrote them down."

"The payrolls are for approximately a hundred thousand dollars, twice each month?"

"That's right. And ever since Mr. Bernal took charge, we have taken this means to identify payrolls. No attempt is made to list the bills in numerical order. The serial numbers are simply read off and written down. Unless a robbery occurs, there is no need to do anything further. In the event of a robbery, we can reclassify the numbers and list the bills in numerical order."

"These numbers are in your handwriting—every number?"

"Yes, sir. More than that, you will notice that at the bottom of each page I have signed my initials."

"That's all," Mason said.

"I now offer once more to introduce this list in evidence," Flasher said.

"So ordered," Judge Haswell ruled.

"My next witness is Charles J. Oswald, the sheriff," the district attorney announced.

The sheriff, a long, lanky man with a quiet manner, took the stand. "You're acquainted with Harvey L. Corbin, the defendant in this case?" the district attorney asked.

"I am."

"Are you acquainted with his wife?"

"Yes, sir."

"Now, on the morning of the fifteenth of this month, the morning of the robbery at the Jebson Commercial Company, did you have any conversation with Mrs. Corbin?"

"I did. Yes, sir."

"Did you ask her about her husband's activities the night before?"

"Just a moment," Mason said. "I object to this on the ground that any conversation the sheriff had with Mrs. Corbin is not admissible against the defendant, Corbin furthermore, that in this state a wife cannot testify against her husband. Therefore, any statement she might make would be an indirect violation of that rule. Furthermore, I object on the ground that the question calls for hearsay."

Judge Haswell looked ponderously thoughtful, then said, "It seems to,me Mr. Mason is correct."

"I'll put it this way, Mr. Sheriff," the district attorney said. "Did you, on the morning of the fifteenth, take any money from Mrs. Corbin?"

"Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial," Mason said.

"Your Honor," Flasher said irritably, "that's the very gist of our case. We propose to show that two of the stolen twenty- dollar bills were in the possession of Mrs. Corbin."

Mason said, "Unless the prosecution can prove the bills were given Mrs. Corbin by her husband, the evidence is inadmissible." "Thai's just the point," Flasher said. "Those bills were given to her by the defendant."

"How do you know?" Mason asked.

"She told the sheriff so."

"That's hearsay," Mason snapped.

Judge Haswell fidgeted on the bench. "It seems to me we're getting into a peculiar situation here. You can't call the wife as a witness, and I don't think her statement to the sheriff is admissible."

"Well," Flasher said desperately, "in this state, Your Honor, we have a community-property law. Mrs. Corbin had this money. Since she is the wife of the defendant, it was community property. Therefore, it's partially his property."

"Well now, there," Judge Haswell said, "I think I can agree with you. You introduce the twenty-dollar bills. I'll overrule the objection made by the defense."

"Produce the twenty-dollar bills, Sheriff," Flasher said triumphantly.

The bills were produced and received in evidence.

"Cross-examine," Flasher said curtly.

"No questions of this witness," Mason said, "but I have a few questions to ask Mr. Bernal on cross-examination. You took him off the stand to lay the foundation for introducing the bank list, and I didn't have an opportunity to cross-exam- ine him."

"I beg your pardon," Flasher said. "Resume the stand, Mr. Bernal."

His tone, now that he had the twenty-dollar bills safely introduced in evidence, was excessively polite.

Mason said, "This list which has been introduced in evidence is on the stationery of the Ivanhoe National Bank?"

"That's right. Yes, sir."

"It consists of several pages, and at the end there is the signature of the assistant cashier?"

"Yes, sir."

"And each page is initialed by the assistant cashier?"

"Yes, sir."

"This was the scheme which you thought of in order to safeguard the company against a payroll robbery?"

"Not to safeguard the company against a payroll robbery, Mr. Mason, but to assist us in recovering the money in the event there was a holdup."

"This was your plan to answer Mr. Nesbitt's objections that the vault was an outmoded model?"

"A part of my plan, yes. I may say that Mr. Nesbitt's objections had never been voiced until I took office. I felt he was trying to embarrass me by making my administration show less net returns than expected." Bernal tightened his lips and added, "Mr. Nesbitt had, I believe, been expecting to be appointed manager. He was disappointed. I believe he still expects to be manager."

In the spectators' section of the courtroom, Ralph Nesbitt glared at Bernal.

"You had a conversation with the defendant on the night of the fourteenth?" Mason asked Bernal.

"I did. Yes, sir."

"You told him that for reasons which you deemed sufficient you were discharging him immediately and wanted him to leave the premises at once?"

"Yes, sir. I did."

"And you paid him his wages in cash?"

"Mr. Nesbit paid him in my presence, with money he took from the petty-cash drawer of the vault."

"Now, as part of the wages due him, wasn't Corbin given these two twenty-dollar bills which have been introduced in evidence?"

Bernal shook his head. "I had thought of that," he said, "but it would have been impossible. Those bills weren't available to us at that time. The payroll is received from the bank in a sealed package. Those two twenty-dollar bills were in that package."

"And the list of the numbers of the twenty-dollar bills?"

"That's in a sealed envelope. The money is placed in the vault. I lock the list of numbers in my desk." "Are you prepared to swear that neither you nor Mr. Nesbitt had access to these two twenty-dollar bills on the night of the fourteenth?"

"That is correct."

"That's all," Mason said. "No further cross-examination."

"I now call Ralph Nesbitt to the stand," District Attorney Flasher said. "I want to fix the time of these events definitely, Your Honor."

"Very well," Judge Haswell said. "Mr. Nesbitt, come forward."

Ralph Nesbitt, after answering the usual preliminary questions, sat down in the witness chair.

"Were you present at a conversation which took place between the defendant, Harvey L. Corbin, and Frank Bernal on the fourteenth of this month?" the district attorney asked.

"I was. Yes, sir."

"What time did that conversation take place?"

"About eight o'clock in the evening."

"And, without going into the details of that conversation, I will ask you if the general effect of it was that the defendant was discharged and ordered to leave the company's property?"

"Yes, sir."

"And he was paid the money that was due him?"

"In cash. Yes, sir. I took the cash from the safe myself."

"Where was the payroll then?"

"In the sealed package in a compartment in the safe. As cashier, I had the only key to that compartment. Earlier in the afternoon I had gone to Ivanhoe City and received the sealed package of money and the envelope containing the list of numbers. I personally locked the package of money in the vault."

"And the list of numbers?"

"Mr. Bernal locked that in his desk."

"Cross-examine," Flasher said.

"No questions," Mason said.

"That's our case, Your Honor," Flasher observed.

"May we have a few minutes' indulgence?" Mason asked Judge Haswell.

"Very well. Make it brief," the judge agreed.

Mason turned to Paul Drake and Della Street. "Well, there you are," Drake said. "You're confronted with the proof, Perry."

· "Are you going to put the defendant on the stand?" Della Street asked.

Mason shook his head. "It would be suicidal. He has a record of a prior criminal conviction. Also, it's a rule of law that if one asks about any part of a conversation on direct examination, the other side can bring out all the conversation. That conversation, when Corbin was discharged, was to the effect that he had lied about his past record. And I guess there's no question that he did."

"And he's lying now," Drake said. "This is one case where you're licked. I think you'd better cop a plea and see what kind of a deal you can make with Flasher."

"Probably not any," Mason said. "Flasher wants to have the reputation of having given me a licking— Wait a minute, Paul. I have an idea."

Mason turned abruptly, walked away to where he could stand by himself, his back to the crowded courtroom.

"Are you ready?" the judge asked.

Mason turned. "I am quite ready, Your Honor. I have one witness whom I wish to put on the stand. I wish a subpoena duces tecum issued for that witness. I want him to bring certain documents which are in his possession."

"Who is the witness, and what are the documents?" the judge asked.

Mason walked quickly over to Paul Drake. "What's the name of that character who has the garbage-collecting business," he said softly, "the one who has the first nickel he'd ever made?"

"George Addey."

The lawyer turned to the judge. "The witness that I want is

George Addey, and the documents that I want him to bring to court with him are all the twenty-dollar bills that he has received during the past sixty days."

"Your Honor," Flasher protested, "this is an outrage. This is making a travesty out of justice. It is exposing the court to ridicule."

Mason said, "I give Your Honor my assurance that I think this witness is material and that the documents are material. I will make an affidavit to that effect if necessary. As attorney for the defendant, may I point out that if the court refuses to grant this subpoena, it will be denying the defendant due process of law."

"I'm going to issue the subpoena," Judge Haswell said testily, "and for your own good, Mr. Mason, the testimony had better be relevant."

George Addey, unshaven and bristling with indignation, held up his right hand to be sworn. He glared at Perry Mason.

"Mr. Addey," Mason said, "you have the contract to collect garbage from Jebson City?"

"I do."

"How long have you been collecting garbage there?"

"For over five years, and I want to tell you—"

Judge Haswell banged his gavel. "The witness will answer questions and not interpolate any comments."

"I'll interpolate anything I dang please," Addey said.

"That'll do," the judge said. "Do you wish to be jailed for contempt of court, Mr. Addey?"

"I don't want to go to jail, but I—"

"Then you'll remember the respect that is due the court," the judge said. "Now you sit there and answer questions. This is a court of law. You're in this court as a citizen, and I'm here as a judge, and I propose to see that the respect due to the court is enforced." There was a moment's silence while the judge glared angrily at the witness. "All right, go ahead, Mr. Mason," Judge Haswell said.

Mason said, "During the thirty days prior to the fifteenth of this month, did you deposit any money in any banking institution?"

"I did not."

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"Do you have with you all the twenty-dollar bills that you received during the last sixty days?"

"I have, and I think making me bring them here is just like inviting some crook to come and rob me and—"

Judge Haswell banged with his gavel. "Any more comments of that sort from the witness and there will be a sentence imposed for contempt of court. Now you get out those twenty- dollar bills, Mr. Addey, and put them right up here on the clerk's desk."

Addey, mumbling under his breath, slammed a roll of twenty-dollar bills down on the desk in front of the clerk.

"Now," Mason said, "I'm going to need a little clcrical assistance. I would like to have my secretary, Miss Street, and the clerk help me check through the numbers on these bills. I will select a few at random."

Mason picked up three of the twenty-dollar bills and said, "I am going to ask my assistants to check the list of numbers introduced in evidence. In my hand is a twenty-dollar bill that has the number L 07083274 A. Is that bill on the list? The next bill that I pick up is number L 07579190 A. Are either of those bills on the list?"

The courtroom was silent. Suddenly Della Street said, "Yes, here's one that's on the list—bill number L 07579190 A. It's on the list, on page eight."

"What?" the prosecutor shouted.

"Exactly," Mason said, smiling. "So, if a case is to be made against a person merely because he has possession of the money that was stolen on the fifteenth of this month, then your office should prefer charges against this witness, George Addey, Mr. District Attorney."

it

Addey jumped from the witness stand and shook his fist in Mason's facc. "You're a cockeyed liar!" he screamed. "There ain't a one of those bills but what I didn't have it before the

fifteenth. The company cashier changes my money into twenties, because I like big bills. I bury 'em in cans, and I put the date on the side of the can."

"Here's the list," Mason said. "Check it for yourself."

A tense silence gripped the courtroom as the judge and the spectators waited.

"I'm afraid I don't understand this, Mr. Mason," Judge Haswell said after a moment.

"I think it's quite simple," Mason said. "And I now suggest the court take a recess for an hour and check these other bills against this list. I think the district attorney may be surprised."

And Mason sat down and proceeded to put papers in his briefcase.

Della Street, Paul Drake, and Perry Mason were sitting in the lobby of the Ivanhoe Hotel.

"When are you going to tell us?" Della Street asked fiercely. "Or do we tear you limb from limb? How could the garbage man have . . . ?"

"Wait a minute," Mason said. "I think we're about to get results. Here comes the esteemed district attorney, Vernon Flasher, and he's accompanied by Judge Haswell."

The two strode over to Mason's group and bowed with cold formality.

Mason got up.

Judge Haswell began in his best courtroom voice. "A most deplorable situation has occurred. It seems that Mr. Frank Bernal has—well—"

"Been detained somewhere," Vernon Flasher said.

"Disappeared," Judge Haswell said. "He's gone."

"I expected as much," Mason said.

"Now will you kindly tell me just what sort of pressure you brought to bear on Mr. Bernal to . . . ?"

"Just a moment, Judge," Mason said. "The only pressure I brought to bear on him was to cross-examine him."

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"Did you know that there had been a mistake in the dates on those lists?"

"There was no mistake. When you find Bernal, I'm sure you will discover there was a deliberate falsification. He was short in his accounts, and he knew he was about to be demoted. He had a desperate need for a hundred thousand dollars in ready cash. He had evidently been planning this burglary, or, rather, this embezzlement, for some time. He learned that Corbin had a criminal record. He arranged to have these lists furnished by the bank. He installed a burglar alarm and, naturally, knew how to circumvent it. He employed a watchman he knew was addicted to drink. He only needed to stage his coup at the right time. He fired Corbin and paid him off with bills that had been recorded by the bank on page eight of the list of bills in the payroll on the first of the month.

"Then he removed page eight from the list of bills contained in the payroll of the fifteenth, before he showed it to the police, and substituted page eight of the list for the first-of-the-month payroll. It was that simple.

"Then he drugged the watchman's whiskey, took an acetylene torch, burned through the vault doors, and took all the money."

"May I ask how you knew all this?" Judge Haswell demanded.

"Certainly," Mason said. "My client told me he received those bills from Nesbitt, who took them from the petty-cash drawer in the safe. He also told the sheriff that. I happened to be the only one who believed him. It sometimes pays, Your Honor, to have faith in a man, even if he has made a previous mistake. Assuming my client was innocent, I knew either Bernal or Nesbitt must be guilty. I then realized that only Bernal had custody of the previous lists of numbers.

"As an employee, Bernal had been paid on the first of the month. He looked at the numbers on the twenty-dollar bills in his pay envelope and found that they had been listed on page eight of the payroll for the first.

"Bernal only needed to extract all the twenty-dollar bills

THF. CASE OF THE IRATE WITNESS 2"

from the petty-cash drawer, substitute twenty-dollar bills from his own pay envelope, call in Corbin, and fire him. His trap was set.

"I let him know I knew what had been done by bringing Addey into court and proving my point. Then I asked for a re-cess- That was so Bernal would have a chance to skip out. You see, flight may be received as evidence of guilt. It was a profes-sional courtesy to the district attorney. It will help him when Bernal is arrested."

The Jeweled Butterfly

THERE WAS an office rumor that Old E.B. locked the door of his private office on Wednesday mornings so he could practice putting. This had never been confirmed, but veteran employees at the Warranty Exchange Fidelity Indemnity, known locally as WEFI, made it a rule either to take up important matters on Tuesday or to postpone them until Thursday.

Peggy Castle, E.B.'s secretary, didn't inherit the Wednesday breathing spell from her predecessors. When Old E.B. found out that before Peggy came to WEFI she had worked on a country newspaper upstate, he inveigled her into starting a gossip column in the WEFI house organ.

Peggy was interested in people, had a photographic memory for names and faces, and a broad-minded, whimsical sense of humor. The result was that her column, which she called Castle's in the Air, attracted so much attention that Old E.B., beaming with pride, insisted she devote more and more time to it.

"It's just what we've needed," he said. "We've had too much money to spend on the damn paper. We made it too slick, too formal, too dressed up. It looked impressive, but who the hell wants a house organ to be impressive? We want it to be neighborly. We want it to be interesting. We want the employees to eat it up. We want something that'll attract cus-

tomcr attention on the outside. You're doing it. It's fine. Keep it up. One of these days it'll lead to something big."

Old E.B. carried a bunch of clippings from Peggy's column in his wallet. Very often he'd pick out priceless gems and sidle up to cronies at the club. "Got a girl up at the office—my secretary, smart as a whip," he'd begin. "You ought to see what she's done to the gossip column in our house organ. This is it. Castle's in the Air. Listen to this one

" 'Th« identity of the practical joker in the Bond Writing Department has not as yet been discovered. When Bill Fill-more finds him he insists he's going to choke him until his eyeballs protrude far enough to be tattooed with Bill's initials. It seems that Bill and Ernestine have been keeping pretty steady company. At noon on last Thursday, Bill decided to pop the question, did so, and was accepted. That afternoon he was walking on air. However, it seems that Bill had confided his intentions to a few friends, showing them the ring he had bought to slip on Ernestine's finger if she said yes. So some wag managed to dust the knees of Bill's trousers immediately after lunch. Bill doesn't know how it was done. He didn't even know it had been done. While Ernestine was telling the news and showing her sparkler, observant eyes were naturally looking Bill over. People couldn't refrain from seeing the two well- defined dust spots on the knees of Bill's trousers. Ernestine thought it was cute, but Bill— Well, let's talk about something else.'

"How's that for a yarn?" E.B. would say, slapping his crony on the back. "Damnedest thing you ever heard? You can figure what that's done to the house organ. Everybody reads it now. Stuff like that really peps it up.

"How's that? Hell, no! Not a word of truth to it, but the funny thing is that Bill Fillmore doesn't know it. He really thinks there was dust on his trousers, put there by some wag, and he's going around chewing tenpenny nails. Half of the people in the place are in on the secret, and the other half are looking for the practical joker. Damnedest thing you ever saw,

the way stuff like that peps up the house organ. Here's more of

it."

Given the slightest provocation, Old E.B. would pull out more clippings. Usually his cronies gave him the provocation. The clippings were always good for a laugh, and many of E.B.'s friends had house-organ problems of their own.

On this Wednesday afternoon Peggy opened the anonymous letter and read it through carefully.

Don Kimberly is having a date tonight at the Royal Pheasant with Miss Cleavage. Is this going to burn somebody up! I don't ask you to take my word for it, so I won't sign my name. Just stick around and see what happens.

The missive was signed A Reader, and the writing was feminine.

Ordinarily she would have consigned this sort of thing to the wastebasket after a cursory glance, but Don Kimberly, trouble shooter in the Claims Adjusting Department, was the most eligible catch in the organization. A young, clearheaded bachelor with a legal education, he had dark wavy hair, steady slate-colored eyes, bronzed skin, and a rather mysterious air of reserve. Every girl in the organization got cardiac symptoms when he walked by her desk—and Peggy was no exception.

"Miss Cleavage" was Stella Lynn, who had won a beauty contest at a country fair before coming to the city to work for WEFI. It was obvious that the judges of this local show had been more interested in well-developed curves than in streamlined contours.

Stella Lynn, proud of her curvaceousness, habitually wore the most plunging necklines of any employee in the WEFI organization. When someone came up with the nickname of "Miss Cleavage," the appellation had fit as snugly as the office dresses she wore and had stuck like chewing gum. Peggy Castle studied the anonymous letter again. What in the world could Don Kimberly see in Stella Lynn? The whole thing was ridiculous enough, so that it could have been a gag sent to her by some practical joker who hoped she

would publish it in her column without confirmation and so create a minor office furor.

On the other hand, suppose the thing actually was true? It would cause plenty of commotion.

Without stopping to think that this was exactly what the writer of the anonymous letter had planned, Peggy decided to find out at firsthand."...

The Royal Pheasant nightclub catered to a regular clientele. The floor show was spotty, the food quite good, the music fair. The dance floor was a little larger than the handkerchief- sized squares in some of the more expensive nightclubs.

Peggy, using her press card to forestall any rule about unescorted women guests, sallied into the Royal Pheasant attired in her best semiformal, secured a table, and toyed with a cocktail, waiting.

Half an hour passed uneventfully. The headwaiter dropped by. "Another cocktail, Miss Castle?"

She started slightly at his use of her name and then, remembering the press card, smiled and shook her head.

"We want you to be happy," the headwaiter went on, "and we hope you will write something nice about the place."

Peggy felt a twinge of conscience. Perhaps the management thought she was with some magazine of large circulation.

"As a matter of fact," he went on, "I read your column every single issue."

" You do?" she asked, surprised.

"E.B. Halsey told me about your column," the headwaiter went on. "He comes in here quite often. He put me on the mailing list. It's very good stuff."

Peggy felt a surge of relief. "Oh. I'm so glad—so glad you like it."

"We get quite a bit of business from the big brass out at your company," he went on. "We're really pleased that you're here. And of course, you'll be entitled to all the courtesies."

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"The tab is on the house," he explained. "Another cocktail?"

"No thanks, not right now."

"We have a good show tonight. Glad you're here."

He moved away, taking with him a load of guilt from Peggy's shoulders and leaving her with a feeling of exultation.

Then Don Kimberly came in—alone.

Quite evidently he had a table reserved. He seated himself, locsked leisurely around, ordered a cocktail, and settled back with the air of a man who has arrived early for an appointment.

Peggy glanced at her wristwatch. It was nine-fifteen. The floor show started at nine-thirty.

She puckered her forehead. It was bizarre enough in the first place to think of Don Kimberly taking Stella Lynn to the Royal Pheasant. But he certainly wasn't expecting Miss Cleavage to come in unescorted and join him. There was something strange about the whole business. If it had been a date he'd have called for Stella and escorted her.

Peggy became so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't realize the passing of time until the lights dimmed and her waiter was there with another cocktail.

"Beg pardon, Miss Castle, but the management knows another one won't hurt you, and you'll be wanting to watch the floor show now."

Peggy thanked him. The chorus came dancing on, un- draped almost to the point of illegality. A master of ceremonies pulled up the microphone.

Peggy glanced at Don Kimberly. Kimoerly wasn't watching the girls' legs. He was frowningly contemplating his wrist- watch.

Good heavens, Peggy Castle thought, she wouldn't stand him up. She wouldn't dare. Why, this is the highlight of her career. If she actually has a date with him, she—no, no, she couldn't be late.

But quite obviously, whoever Don Kimberly was waiting for was late, and the increasing shortness of the intervals at which he consulted his watch and then gave frowning attention to the door indicated a rapidly growing impatience.

34 ERLE STANLEY CARDNER

And then the lights came on, and suddenly Peggy realized that Don Kimberly was looking at her with the puzzled expression of "where-the-devil-have-I-seen-that-girl-before" in his eyes.

She nodded and smiled, and as he bowed she saw sudden recognition flash in his face. Then he was on his way over.

"Well, hello, Miss Castle," he said. "I didn't recognize you for a moment. Waiting for someone?"

"Oh, no," she said. "I'm getting material for my column, covering a nitery where so many of the WEFI officials drop in. I trust you realize that the eyes of the press are upon you, Mr. Kimberly, and that the pitiless white light of publicity will be turned on you in my next—"

"Oh, good heavens!" Kimberly exclaimed in dismay and, without asking her permission, sat down at her table and scowled at her.

"Why, what's the matter?" Peggy asked vivaciously. "Surelyyou have nothing to conceal. You're unmarried, unen-cumbered. I—was on the point of adding uninhibited."

"Uninhibited is right," he groaned.

"And may I ask why being written up in Castle's in the Air seems to provoke so little enthusiasm in you?"

"Am I unenthusiastic?"

"I thought you were."

He smiled, suddenly regaining his composure. "I'm enthusi-astic now, but it's certainly not because of your column."

"Surely you aren't alone?" she asked archly, carefully surveying his face.

"I'm waiting for some folks. Why not quit playing with that cocktail and let me order you another?"

"Good heavens, this is my second."

"Well, at the rate you're working on that one, the first must have been at least an hour ago. Here, waiter!"

Peggy let him have his way. She was experiencing a pleasant glow, not only from the drinks, but from the exciting realization that there must be more to this than appeared on the surface.

THE JEWELED BUTTERFLY 35

Why had Don Kimberly made this surreptitious rendezvous with Stella Lynn? Had he been ashamed to go to her apart-ment and escort her to the Royal Pheasant—or had he been afraid to?

Once more Kimberly glanced at his wristwatch.

"My, you're jittery," Peggy said. "Like a nervous cat. You aren't by any chance being stood up, are you? No, that's catty! After all, you know, I'm on the lookout for news."

She felt certain he winced inwardly. "A news story," he said, "has been defined as being the thing the other person doesn't want published. I believe there was some famous news-paperman who said, 'If the parties want it published, it's not news. If they try to keep it out of the paper, then it's news.' "

"And are you going to try to keep something out of the paper?" she asked.

Abruptly he was serious. "Yes, I'm afraid I'm going to deprive you of a choice item for your column—even if I have to go direct to E. B. Halsey to do it."

"The date you have here tonight?"

He regarded her with frowning appraisal. "Now, wait a minute, Miss Castle. Why are you here?"

She met his eyes. "I received an anonymous tip that you and Stella Lynn were going to be here tonight. I thought I'd drop in, cover the nightclub, and pick up a 'personal' that would be—well, interesting—to a lot of people at the office."

"You mean amusing?"

"Well, if we're going to be technical about it, amusement is a form of interest."

Kimberly was thoughtful. "You've doubtless heard the nick-name 'Miss Cleavage,' " he said at length.

Peggy started to laugh, and then at something in his tone caught herself.

"I've known her for five years," Kimberly went on. "Knew her before she came to work here, knew her before she won that beauty contest. She's a good kid."

"I'm sorry," Peggy said. "I—"

"You don't need to be. I understand. She—I don't know, I

guess she's an exhibitionist. She has that complex. Just as some people like to sing, Stella likes to show her curves. She's proud of them. But she's a good kid."

Peggy said, "I didn't realize that there was anything seri-ous—"

"There isn't."

"I know, but what I'm trying to say is that I don't think there's anyone in the company who realizes that you've known her so long. You are, of course—well, eligible. I guess everybody likes Stella, but people wouldn't expect you two to be having a date."

Abruptly he said, "I like her, but this isn't a date, and I'm worried."

"What do you mean?"

He said, "As you probably know, my job is pretty diversified. If an actress reports she's lost fifty thousand dollars' worth of jewels, or claims that someone got into her apartment and stole a hundred-thousand-dollar necklace, it's up to me to investigate. I handle the burglary-insurance division of WEFI, and that ties in with a lot of things."

She nodded, her senses alert.

"Stella called me on the telephone this morning. To appre-ciate the significance of that you must realize that Stella has always had an exaggerated idea of the importance of my posi-tion. This is, I think, the first time she has ever called me, and she called me during office hours."

Kimberly paused and glanced searchingly at her. Peggy kept her face expressionless.

"Well," he went on, "she told me that she had to see me tonight on a terribly important matter. She asked me where we could meet. I said I'd be glad to see her at any time or place, and she said it must be some place where the meeting would seem to be accidental. So I suggested the Royal Pheasant. She said this would be all right and that she'd be here at nine- thirty on the dot."

"She was to meet you here?"

"Yes. I offered to call for her at her apartment. She said I

mustn't go near her place, that she was in a ticklish situation, and that I should meet her here. If she was with someone I was to pretend it was an accidental meeting. She promised to be here by nine-thirty sharp. I'm worried."

"I didn't know, and I guess no one else did, that you were friends."

"There's no particular secret about it. Stella thought it would be better if we didn't proclaim it from the housetops. You see, she may be an exhibitionist, but she has a delicately adjusted sense of values, and she'll never let a friend down. She's a good kid. She's oversensitive about the difference in our positions at the place."

"I take it you got her the job?"

"No, I didn't. I don't know who did. I ran into her in the el-evator one afternoon. She told me she had been working there for two weeks. I offered to buy her a drink. She told me she re-alized I was up in the high brass and she was only in the filing department. She said she wanted me to know she'd never em-barrass me.

"It's things like that about Stella that make you like her. She's so natural, always so perfectly frank and easy. Look here, Miss Castle, I'm worried about her. I'm going up to her apart-ment and make sure she's all right. It might be a good thing if you came along."

"Perhaps she's just late and—"

"Not Stella. She'd have phoned if she'd been detained. Waiter, let's have a check, please."

Peggy didn't tell him she had had no dinner. She merely nodded and gave him a smile she hoped was reassuring. "I'll be glad to go with you," she said, "but I thought Stella told you that you mustn't go to her apartment."

"That's right, but I think that with you with me it'll be all right. We'll say you and I had a date for tonight—that we're together. And anything you may find out isn't for publication. Come on, let's go."

The apartment house was ornate in front but rather shabby alter one had passed the foyer. Almost mechanically Don

Kimberly fitted a key to the front door, opened it, escorted Peggy through the foyer, back to the automatic elevator, and punched the button for the fifth floor.

"You have—a key?" she asked.

"Don't be silly. That's the key to my own apartment house. Almost any key will fit these outer doors."

Peggy knew that was so, knew also that Don Kimberly hadn't so much as hesitated or tentatively tried his key. He had fitted it to the lock, turned it with complete assurance, and gone on in without pausing.

She found herself wondering whether this was the first time he had tried his own key in that lock. The fact that she hated herself for having the thought didn't erase it from her mind.

Then the rattling elevator came to a stop. Kimberly held the door open for her and slid the steel door of the elevator shut behind him. "Down to your left," he said. "Five nineteen."

She turned left, and Kimberly, catching up with her, pushed the bell button of Apartment 519.

They could hear the sound of the buzzer but no sound of motion.

Kimberly waited a few moments, then tried the door. The knob turned, the door opened, and Peggy, looking in, saw a well-ordered, plainly furnished apartment.

"Anybody h'ome?" Kimberly called.

Peggy clutched his arm.

"What is it?" he asked.

"That coat over the chair."

"What about it?"

"It's a coat she'd have worn going out for the evening. Why would she have left it here?"

She pointed to a swinging door that evidently led to a kitchen. Her voice sounded high-pitched with excitement. "Let's make sure she isn't here."

Kimberly pushed back the swinging door. Peggy, who was standing where she could see through the half-open door, gave an exclamation.

The stockinged legs of a girl were sprawled out on the floor. A bottle of whiskey was on the side of the sink. A glass had rolled from the girl's limp fingers, leaving a trail of liquid along the linoleum. The figure was attired in a strapless bra, a voluminous petticoat, shoes, and stockings.

Kimberly suddenly laughed and called, "Stella, come on, wake up! You've missed the boat!"

The woman didn't move.

Peggy, moving forward, noticed the peculiar color of the girl's skin. She dropped swiftly to her knees, picked up the limp hand, and suddenly dropped it. "She's dead."

"What?"

"Dead. It must have been her heart."

Kimberly said, "Call a doctor."

Peggy said, "A doctor won't help. She's dead. Just touch her, and you'll know she's dead. We'd better—"

"Better what?"

"Better call the police."

Kimberly hesitated. "What's that on her leg?"

Peggy looked at the girl's right leg. Attached to the reinforced top of the sheer nylon stocking was a beautiful butterfly pin with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds giving a splash of glittering color.

"Good heavens," Kimberly exclaimed, "how in the world did she get that?"

"Why, what about it?" Peggy asked, realizing that Kim- berly's face had turned white.

"Ever hear of the Garrison jewel theft?" he asked.

"Who hasn't?"

"Our company insured the Garrison jewels. We're stuck to the tune of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars—and that butterfly looks exactly like the famous Garrison butterfly. Now, how in the world did Stella get that?"

Peggy unfastened the butterfly pin and dropped it into her purse. "It won't do any good to have the police find that," she said.

"Look here," Kimberly protested. "You can't do that. It may be evidence."

"Of what?"

"I don't know. I only know you can't do that."

"I've already done it."

"But—look here, let's call a doctor and—we don't need to wait. Let the doctor do whatever's necessary."

Peggy said, "It's a job for the police. Do you notice that froth on her lips? And there's an odor that I have been trying to place. Now I know what it is."

"What do you mean, an odor?"

"Bitter almonds. That means cyanide. So does the color of the skin."

He looked at her dubiously. "You seem to know a lot about —suicides."

"I do," Peggy said. "I've done newspaper work. Now, since we're already in it this deep, let's take a look around."

"What for?"

"To protect ourselves. Let's make certain there are no more corpses, for one thing."

She moved swiftly about the apartment, her quick eyes drinking in details.

"If this is suicide, what you're doing is probably highly ille-gal," he said.

"And if it's murder?"

"Then it's doubly illegal."

She said nothing, moving quietly around the rooms. Her gloved hands occasionally touched some object with the great-est care, but for the most part her hands were at her sides.

There was an odor of raw whiskey about the place, perhaps from the spilled drink in the kitchen. However, this odor was stronger in the bathroom.

Peggy dropped to her knees on the tiled floor, picked up a small sliver of glass, then another. She let both slivers drop back to the tiles.

In the bedroom, the dress Stella was to have worn was

spread out on the bed. The plunging neckline seemed to go nearly to the waist.

Kimberly, looking at the V-shaped opening in the front of the dress, gave a low whistle. "Peggy," he said at length, using her first name easily and naturally, "this is going to make a stink. If it should be murder—I don't see how it could be, and yet that's what I'm afraid of."

"Suppose it's suicide?" she asked.

"Then there wouldn't be too much to it—just a few lines on page two, or perhaps a write-up in the second section. And Old E.B. hates bad publicity."

"Are you telling me?"

"Well, then," he said, "do you think we really have to notify the police? Can't we just call a doctor and leave?"

"Do you want to be suspect number one in a murder case?" she asked.

"Heavens, no!"

"You're filing nomination papers right now with that sort of talk. There's the phone. Call the police."

He hesitated. "I'd like to keep us out of it altogether. Since she's dead, there's nothing we can do—"

Peggy walked to the phone, dialed the operator, asked for police headquarters, and almost immediately heard a booming masculine voice answer the phone.

Peggy said, "My name is Castle. I wish to report a death. We just found a body under very odd circumstances and—"

"Where are you?"

Peggy gave the address.

"Wait there," the voice said. "Don't touch anything. Be on the lookout for a squad car. I'll get in touch with the dispatcher."

The two officers were very considerate. They listened to the sketchy story Kimberly told, the story that very carefully left out all reference to Peggy's suspicion of poison, and recounted barely the facts that Stella Lynn was a "friend of theirs," that they had called on her at her apartment, had found the door

open, walked in, and discovered her body on the floor they didn't know exactly what the proper procedure was under the circumstances but felt they should notify the police.

The police looked around a bit, nodded sagely, and then one of them called the coroner.

Peggy ventured with some hesitation, "Are you—have you any ideas of what caused death?"

"You thinking of suicide?" ·

She hesitated. "I can't help wondering whether it might have been her heart."

"Had she been despondent or anything?"

"I didn't know her that well," Peggy said, "but I gather she had rather a happy disposition. But—well, notice the foam on the lips, the peculiar color of her skin—"

The officer shrugged. "We aren't thinking, not right now. We're following rules and taking statements."

There followed an interval of waiting. Men came and went, and eventually the Homicide Squad arrived with a photogra-pher to take pictures of the body, and a detective to question Peggy and Kimberly in detail.

Kimberly told his story first. Since it did not occur to anyone to examine them separately, Peggy, after hearing Don's highly generalized version of the evening's activities, confined herself to the bare essentials. The officers seemed to take it for granted that she had been Don Kimberly's date, and that following dinner they had dropped in at Stella Lynn's apartment simply because they were friends and because Stella Lynn worked in the same office.

Don Kimberly drove her home. Peggy hoped he would open up with some additional explanation, but he was competely preoccupied with his thoughts and the problem of driving through the evening traffic, so it became necessary for Peggy to bring up the subject.

"You told your story first," she said, "so I had to back your play, but 1 think we've carried it far enough."

"What do you mean?"

"The police assumed I was your date for the evening."

"Well, what's wrong with that? We can't help what they as-sume."

"Then I'll draw you a diagram," Peggy said impatiently. "I think Stella Lynn was murdered. think it was carefully planned, cold-blooded, deliberate murder, cunningly conceived and ruthlessly carried out. I think the police are going to investigate enough to find that out. Then they're going to ask you to tell your story in greater detail."

He slowed the car until it was barely crawling. "All right," he said, "what's wrong with my story? You and I were at the Royal Pheasant. We got to talking about Stella Lynn. We de-cided to run in and see her. We—"

"Everything is wrong with that story," she interrupted. "In the first place, someone knew you were going to the Royal Pheasant to meet Stella. That someone sent me an anonymous letter. Moreover, if the police check with the headwaiter, they'll learn that I came in alone, using my press card, and that you came in later."

Abruptly he swung the car to the curb and shut off the motor.

"What time did you get that anonymous letter?"

"In the afternoon mail."

"What became of it?"

"I tore it into small bits and dumped it into the waste- basket."

He said, "Stella didn't work today. She rang up and told the personnel manager she wouldn't be at the office. About ten- thirty she rang me up and asked me what our policy would be on paying out a reward for the recovery of all the gems in the Garrison job."

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her it made a great deal of difference with whom we were dealing. You know how those things are. It's our policy never to reward a thief. If we did, we'd be in the position of fencing property that had first been stolen from our own

clients. But if a man gives us a legitimate tip and that tip leads to the recovery of insured property, we are, of course, willing to pay, and pay generously."

"You told her that?"

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

"She told me she thought she had some information on the Garrison case that would interest me. I told her that on a big job like that hundreds of false leads were floating around. She told me that she could show me evidence that would prove she was dealing with people who knew what they were talking about."

"That," Peggy said, "would account for the jeweled but-terfly."

"You mean that was to be my assurance I was dealing with the right people?"

"That was the start of it, but I think it has an added sig-nificance now."

"What?"

"You are thinking Stella ran into danger because she was going to tell you something about the Garrison jewels. Now, let's suppose you are right, and she was killed by the jewel thieves. They'd never have left that jeweled butterfly on her stocking. All those rubies, emeralds, and diamonds! It must be worth a small fortune."

He thought that over.

"And," Peggy went on, "if she'd been killed by an intruder or a burglar, he'd naturally have taken the butterfly. So it adds up to the fact that her death must have been unrelated to that Garrison job and must have been caused by someone who was so anxious to have her out of the way the opportunity to steal the butterfly meant nothing."

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He looked at her with sudden respect. "Say, you're a logical little cuss."

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She said, "That's not what women want. When men praise their brains it's almost a slam. A woman would far rather be known as a glamour puss than as a thinker. Let's check on our

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story a little further. Stella telephoned you this morning, and it was you who suggested the Royal Pheasant?"

"That's right. Surely you don't doubt my statement."

"I don't doubt your statement. I doubt your conclusions."

"What do you mean?"

"If you told me that two and three added up to ten," she said, "I wouldn't be doubting your statement, I'd be doubting your conclusions. You might actually have ten as an answer . and know that the figures you had in mind consisted of two and three, but the total of those figures wouldn't be ten."

"Apparently you want to point out that there's a factor I've missed somewhere, that there's an extra five I don't know about."

"Exactly," she said.

"And what makes you think there's this extra five? What have I missed?"

"The anonymous letter I received in the afternoon mail had been postmarked at five-thirty P.M.yesterday. If you are the one who suggested the Royal Pheasant, how did someone know yesterday that you and Stella were to have a date there tonight?"

"All right, let's go," he told her. "There's a possibility the janitor hasn't cleaned up in your office. We're going to have to find that letter, put the torn pieces together, and reconstruct the postmark on that envelope. There's also the possibility that your totals are all wrong and the postmark was a clever forgery. How come you noticed it?"

"Because Uncle Benedict told me if you ever wanted to get anywhere you had to notice details."

"Who's Uncle Benedict?"

"He's the black sheep of my family, the one who made his living by—" Abruptly she became silent. She realized all too keenly that she couldn't tell Don Kimberly about her uncle Benedict. There were only a few people she could tell about him.

Kimberly signed both names to the register and said to the

janitor, "Let's go up to E. B. Halsey's office, please, and make it snappy. Do you know whether that office has ben cleaned?"

"Sure it has. We begin on that floor. That's the brass-hat floor. They're always out by five o'clock. Some of the other floors are later—"

"And you're certain Halsey's office has been cleaned up?"

"Sure. I did it myself."

"You emptied the wastebasket?"

"Yes."

"All right, we have to get that stuff. There was something in the wastebasket. Where is it now?"

The man grinned as he brought the elevator to a stop. "The stuff that was in that wastebasket is smoke by this time."

"You incinerated it?"

"Sure."

"I thought you sometimes saved it for a central pickup."

"No more we don't. We burn it up. Everything in the waste- baskets is burned right here in the building. That's E. B. Halsey's orders. Don't let anything go out."

They hurried to E. B. Halsey's office. As the janitor had told them, it had been cleaned. The square mahogany-colored wastebasket in Peggy Castle's secretarial office was completely free of paper. There was a folded square of cardboard in the bottom, and Peggy pulled it out in the vain hope that some fragment of the letter might have worked down beneath it.

There was nothing.

"I guess that's it," Kimberly said.

"Wait a minute," she told him. "I have a hunch. The way that janitor looked when he said the papers had been burned —come on."

The janitor evidently had been expecting their ring because he brought the cage up quickly.

"All done?" he asked.

"Not quite," Peggy said. "We want to go down to the basement. I want to see where you burn those papers."

"It's just an ordinary incinerator. Mr. Halsey said that he wanted all papers burned on the premises, and—"

"I'm checking," Peggy said. "It's something important. I think Mr. Halsey will want a report tomorrow."

"Oh."

The janitor stopped the cage at the basement and said, "Right over to the left."

Peggy all but ran down the passageway to where several big clothes baskets were stacked in front of an incinerator. Two of the clothes baskets were almost full.

"What's this?"

"Scraps that we haven't burned yet."

"I thought you told me everything had been burned."

"Well, everything from your office."

"How do you know what office these came from?"

The man fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well, I think that these two came from the lower floors."

Peggy nodded to Kimberly, then upset the entire contents of the baskets on the floor and started pawing through them, throwing to one side the envelopes, circular letters, newspapers, scratch paper—all the odds and ends that accumulate in a busy office.

"We don't need to look through anything that isn't torn," she said to Kimberly. "I tore this letter up into fine pieces. And you don't need to bother with anything that's typewritten. This was written in ink in longhand."

They tossed the larger pieces back into the clothes baskets. When they had sifted the whole thing down to the smaller pieces, Peggy suddenly gave a triumphant exclamation. "This is part of it," she said, holding up a triangular section of paper.

"Then here's another part," Kimberly said.

"And here's another." She pounced on another piece.

Kimberly found a fourth. "This piece has part of the postmark on it," he said, fitting it together with the other pieces. "Gosh, you were right. It's postmarked yesterday at five-thirty. But I tell you no one knew—'·'

Peggy caught his eye, glanced significantly at the janitor, who was watching them with an expression of puzzled speculation.

Kimberly nodded and thereafter devoted his energies entirely to the search.

At last they were finished with the final scrap of paper on the floor. By this time they had recovered four pieces of the envelope and six pieces of the letter.

"I guess that's it," Peggy said. "Let's go up to the office and put these together."

Back in the office, with the aid of transparent tape, they fitted the pieces into a hopelessly inadequate reconstruction of a letter that Peggy now realized was undoubtedly destined to be of the greatest interest to the police.

The writer of that letter, Peggy knew, had it in her power to make Don Kimberly the number one suspect in the Stella Lynn murder.

Would the writer come forward? She doubted it, but she thought it was likely that, since one anonymous letter had been written to her, another would be written—but this time to the police.

And Peggy also realized that by falling in with Don Kim- berly's highly abridged account of the evening's activities, she had nominated herself as suspect number two if the police ever should learn exactly what had happened.

Peggy knew enough of E, B. Halsey's temperament to know that her future at WEFI depended on not letting the police find out all that had happened—at least for now.

E. B. Halsey, at fifty-six, prided himself on his erect carriage, his keen eyes that needed spectacles only for reading, and his golf.

There were whispered stories about extracurricular activities. At times when he was with cronies whom he had known for years and whom he knew he could trust, it was understood Old E.B. could really let loose. There were rumors of certain

wolfish tendencies he was supposed to have exhibited on rare occasion.

These last tendencies were the most delectable from the standpoint of powder-room discussion at WEFI, and the hardest to verify. Old E.B. was too shrewd ever to get caught off base. He took no chances on a rebuff, and any amatory affairs he may have indulged in were so carefully masked, so skillfully camouflaged, that the office rumors, although persistent, remained only rumors.

It was nine-thirty when E.B. bustled into the office, jerked his head in a quick, sparrowlike gesture, and said, "Good morning, Miss Castle," and then popped into his private office.

Ten seconds later he pressed the button that summoned Miss Castle.

That was typical of the man. He had undoubtedly arrived an hour early so he could ask what had happened the night before, but it would have been completely out of character for him to have said, "Good morning, Miss Castle. Would you mind stepping into my office?" He would instead enter his office, carefully place his hat on the shelf in the coat closet, stand for a few seconds in front of the mirror smoothing his hair, straightening his tie, and then, and only then, would he settle himself in the big swivel chair at the polished-walnut desk and press the mother-of-pearl button that sounded Peggy's buzzer.

Peggy picked up her notebook, entered the office, and seated herself in a chair.

E.B. waved the notebook aside. "Never mind the notebook. I want to ask you a few questions."

She glanced up at him as though she hadn't been anticipating this interview for the past ten hours.

"You were with Kimberly last night?"

She nodded.

"That was a nasty piece in the paper. I don't like to have the company's name brought into prominence in connection

with things of this sort. A company employee dead. Body found by two other employees who are out together. Possibility of murder. It gives the company a lot of bad publicity."

"I'm sorry," she said.

He cleared his throat. "Now. I know you did newspaper work before coming here."

"A little, on a small paper."

"You have sense. I'm going to get another secretary. From now on you're going to be public relations counselor for this company. Your first job is to see that there's no more bad publicity of the sort that's in the papers this morning.

"Your new position carries with it a substantial increase in salary. You will, of course, keep on with your column in the house organ. I like the chatty, humorous way you make the office gossip interesting, make employees sound important.

"No, no, don't thank me. This appointment is in the nature of a trial. I'll have to see what you can do to kill the sort of talk that we're sure to get about Stella Lynn's death. Now tell me about what happened last night. Tell it all, every detail."

He paused, peering at her over the top of his glasses as though she were in some way personally responsible for Stella Lynn's death.

Peggy Castle told him about the anonymous letter, about going to the Royal Pheasant, and her conversation with Don Kimberly.

"Then you weren't with Don Kimberly?" E.B. asked.

"Not in the sense of having a date with him."

"The papers say you had a dinner date. The police told me the same thing."

"That was a mistake."

E.B. pursed his lips. "Since they think you and Don Kimberly were on a date and merely dropped in on Stella on a friendly call, I think it would be better to let it stay that way."

"May I ask why?"

"It's better not to change a story that has appeared in the press. It puts you in a bad position."

"The mistake was made by the police in assuming we were out together."

E.B. beamed at her. "So that leaves us with a clear conscience, eh? All right, we'll leave it that you and Don had a dinner date."

"But that story won't hold up. The headwaiter knows we didn't come in together. So do the table waiters."

E.B. frowned, then yielded the point reluctantly. "Very well, then, I suppose you'll have to tell them the truth."

Peggy waited. She had said nothing of the jeweled butterfly she had taken from Stella's stocking.

E.B. put the tips of his fingers together. "The pieces of the letter?" he asked.

"I have them in my desk."

"I think we'd better take a look," he said.

She brought them in to him.

"You're sure these pieces are from the envelope?"

"Yes. You can see the handwriting is the same, and this was the only handwritten letter addressed to me in the afternoon mail."

E.B. thoughtfully poked at the pieces of paper.

"How does Kimberly explain this letter?" he asked abruptly.

"He doesn't. He can't."

The telephone on E.B.'s desk rang sharply three times.

E.B. picked up the receiver and said, "Yes, E. B. Halsey."

He frowned for a moment, then said, "This call should have gone to Miss Castle's desk in the ordinary way. However—yes, I understand . . . Very well, I'll see nim. Yes, bring him down here."

Halsey hung up the telephone and once more looked at Peggy over his glasses. "A Detective Nelson is out there. Know anything about him?"

"No."

"He wants to talk with me. The receptionist became flustered and rang me personally. The call should have gone

through your office. However, the damage is done now. I don't want to antagonize the police in any way. You might step out to receive him."

She nodded and went to the reception room just as the receptionist held the door open for E.B.'s visitor.

He wasn't the type she had expected. He might have been a successful accountant or a bond salesman. He was slender, quietly dressed, and when he spoke his voice was melodious.

"I'm Fred Nelson," he said, "from Headquarters."

He was holding a card case in his hand as though expecting to be called on to produce credentials. He exhibited a gold shield and gave Peggy a card, a neatly embossed card with a police shield in gold in the upper left-hand corner.

"Mr. Halsey is expecting you."

"You're his secretary, Miss Castle?"

"That's right."

"I think I want to see you both," he said. "I believe you and your escort discovered the body."

"I was with Mr. Kimberly."

He nodded.

"Do you wish to see Mr. Kimberly at the same time?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Just you and Mr. Halsey."

"Will you step this way, please."

She ushered him into Halsey's office. Nelson shook hands with E.B. and said, "I took the liberty of asking your secretary to remain during the interview, Mr. Halsey."

E.B. beamed at him. "That's fine. Quite all right. Sit right down. Anything we can do for you we'll be glad to do. A most unfortunate occurrence. Always hate to have these tragedies. We're something like a big family here and these things cut pretty close to home."

"You knew Miss Lynn on a personal basis, then?" Nelson asked.

E.B.'s steady eyes surveyed the detective over the top of his glasses. He hesitated for approximately two seconds, as though

debating just how to answer the detective's question, then said curtly, "Yes."

"Had you known Miss Lynn before she came to work here?"

"That is the point I was about to bring up," Halsey said.

"Go ahead. Bring it up."

"I knew Miss Lynn before she came to this city. As a matter of fact, she asked me about a position and I told her that I would be glad to refer her to the head of our Personnel Department and suggest that other things being equal—you understand, Mr. Nelson?"

Nelson nodded.

"—other things being equal," Halsey went on, "I'd like to have her taken on. Of course, in a business the size of this the Personnel Department handles the entire thing. They know the vacancies and the abilities that are required. They have, I believe, tests for—"

"The point is that you interceded for her with the Personnel Department and Stella Lynn got a job?"

"That's putting it in a rather peculiar way."

Nelson turned to Peggy. "Did Stella Lynn seem to be brooding, worried, apprehensive?"

"I didn't know her well, Mr. Nelson. I saw her off and on and chatted with her when I saw her. She was always cheerful. I'd say she was probably the least likely candidate for suicide—"

"1 wasn't thinking about suicide."

"Well, a person doesn't worry about murder."

"I wasn't thinking about murder."

E.B. cleared his throat. "Well, then, may I ask what you were thinking about?"

Nelson glanced at Peggy Castle. "Something else," he said. "Something Miss Lynn could well have worried about."

"Heavens!" Peggy said impatiently. "I understand English, and I understand the facts of life. Are you trying to tell us that she was pregnant?"

Nelson nodded.

E.B. put his elbows on the desk, his chin in his hands. "Good Lord!" he murmured.

"You seem upset," Nelson said.

"He's thinking of the good name of the company," Peggy explained, "of the publicity."

"Oh, I see," Nelson said in a dry voice. He turned to Peggy. "I'd like to have your story, Miss Castle, right from the beginning."

"There isn't any story. Mr. Kimberly and I decided to look in on Stella Lynn, and we found her lying dead on the floor. We called the police."

"That certainly is a succinct statement," Nelson said.

"I don't know how I could elaborate on it."

"You didn't know Stella Lynn well?"

"Not particularly well, no."

"How did it happen that you went to call on her, then?"

"It was Mr. Kimbcrly's suggestion."

"And why did he want to call on her last night?"

She said, "I'm afraid Mr. Kimberly doesn't think it necessary to confide in me."

"Perhaps he'll be a little less reticent with me" Nelson said.

"Perhaps."

Nelson turned toward the door. "Well, I just wanted to find out what you knew about Stella Lynn's background," he said. "I'll talk with Kimberly, and then I'll be back."

He walked out without a word of farewell.

As the door closed, E.B. picked up the telephone and said to the receptionist, "A man by the name of Nelson is leaving my office. He wants to see Mr. Kimberly. I want him to be delayed until I can get Kimberly on the phone and— What's that? . . . Oh, I see . . . Well, that explains it. All right."

E.B. hung up, looked at Peggy, and said, "That's why he didn't ask to have Kimberly in on our conference. Mr. Kimberly is not in the office this morning. No one seems to know where he is."

He paused for a moment, digesting that information, then

said, "Of course, that is a temporary expedient. It gives him a certain margin of time—I notice you didn't tell Detective Nelson about that letter, Miss Castle."

"I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"It doesn't fit in with Kimberly's version of what happened. Kimberly says Stella Lynn called him up around ten-thirty in the morning and told him that she had to see him. He's the one who suggested the Royal Pheasant. .Yet this letter, which was postmarked the day before, informed me that Kimberly

and Stella Lynn were going to be dining at the Royal Pheas-

.

ant.

E.B. regarded Peggy thoughtfully for a moment. "You have a remarkably shrewd mind, Miss Castle."

She flushed. "Thank you."

"Now, just what do you have in your mind?"

She said, "Stella Lynn's desk. I'd like to clean it out. She'll have some private stuff in there. I'd like to look through it before the police do. No one has said anything about—"

"A splendid idea," E.B. said. "Get busy. And don't tell me what you're doing. I'd prefer not to know all the steps you're taking. That desk, for instance. In case you should find a diary or something—well, you'll know what to do."

E.B. regarded her over the tops of his glasses. "I'm sure you'll know what to do."

Peggy placed a cardboard carton on top of Stella Lynn's desk and began to clean out the drawers, fully realizing that the typists at the adjoining desks were making a surreptitious check on all her actions.

There was an old magazine, a pair of comfortable shoes to be worn at work, a paper bag containing a pair of new nylons, a receipt for rent on her apartment, a small camera in a case, and a half-empty package of tissues.

There was no diary. But the drawers were in disarray, as if they might have been hurriedly searched at an earlier hour.

Peggy wondered what had led E.B. to believe there might

be a diary in the desk. She dumped the contents of the desk into the carton, tied the carton with heavy string, and then, with a crayon, printed the name Stella Lynn on the side. Having done all this to impress the, typists at adjoining desks, Peggy carried the carton back to her own office.

When the door was safely closed she opened the package and inspected the camera. The figure "to" appeared through the little circular window on the back of the camera, indicating that nine pictures had been taken.

Peggy turned the knob until the roll had been transferred to the take-up spool, removed it from the camera, and carefully wiped off the camera to remove her fingerprints. She slipped the camera back into its case, p it the case into the carton, tied the carton up with string, and stepped to the door of E.B.'s private office.

She tapped on the door. When she received no answer, she tried the knob it turned and she gently opened the door. E.B. was not in his office.

She went back to her desk. A piece of paper that had been pushed under the blotter caught her eye. She pulled it out. It was a note from E.B., scrawled hastily.

Miss Castle

As soon as you left my office I recalled an urgent matter that had escaped my attention in the excitement incident to the interruption of our regular morning program. It is a matter of greatest importance and must be kept entirely confidential. I am working on that matter and expect to be out of the office for some time. I will get in touch with you as soon as I have a definite schedule. In the meantime I will be unavailable.

It was signed with the initials E.B.

mm

Peggy batted her eyes and turned her most charming manner on Mrs. Maxwell, the apartment-house manager.

"I certainly hope you don't think I'm too ghoulish, Mrs. Maxwell, but, after all, a girl has to live."

Peggy looked at it. "Well," she said, "Kimberly and Halsey. That makes it unanimous."

Mrs. Maxwell nodded almost imperceptibly, studying her visitor through narrowed eyes around which pools of flesh had been deposited so that the eyes seemed to be about half normal size. Her hair had been dyed a brilliant orange-red, and her cheeks had been rouged too heavily.

"Apartments are so hard to get," Peggy went on, "and, of course, I read in the paper about Stella Lynn's unfortunate death. So I know that the apartment is untenanted, and I know that you're going to have to rent it. Some people might be superstitious about moving into an apartment of that sort, but I definitely am not, and, well, I thought I'd like to be the first applicant."

Again the nod was all but imperceptible.

"I'm not too well fixed," Peggy said. "I'm an honest working girl, and I don't have any—protector—in the background, but I do have fifty dollars saved up that I'd planned to use as a bonus in getting exactly the right kind of apartment. If this apartment suits me, since I wouldn't have any need for the bonus, I'll give it to you in gratitude for the personal inconvenience of showing me the apartment."

This time the nod of the head was definitely more pronounced, then Mrs. Maxwell said, "My hands are tied right at the moment."

"In what way?"

"I can't get in to show the apartment."

"Oh, surely you have a key—"

"The police have put a seal on both doors, front and back. They've been looking for fingerprints—"

"Fingerprints!" Peggy exclaimed. "What do they expect to find out from fingerprints?"

"I don't know. They've put powder over the whole apartment. They've ordered me to keep out. They've sealed up the doors so they can't be opened without breaking the seal."

"Well, you can tell me about the apartment?"

"Oh, yes."

"How about milk?"

"Milk can be delivered at the back."

"And the collection of garbage and cans?"

"There are two receptacles, one for cans and glass, one for garbage. The garbage is collected every other day, the cans and glass twice a week. The tenant has to deposit the material in receptacles on the ground floor in the back."

"I believe this apartment is on the fifth floor," Peggy said.

"That's right."

"I have to walk down five flights of stairs to—"

"Four flights, dearie."

"Well, four flights of stairs to deposit cans and garbage?"

"I'm sorry. There isn't any dumbwaiter service."

"May I take a look at the back stairs?"

"Certainly. Just go through that ddbr at the end of the corridor. Look around all you want, dearie."

When the going got tough, Peggy Castle sometimes appealed for help to her Great-uncle Benedict.

Benedict Castle had lived a highly checkered career. One of Peggy's earliest memories was of hearing the mellifluous voice of Uncle Benedict reminiscently extolling the virtues of Benedict's Body Builder.

". . . Not a chemical, ladies and gentlemen, that tries to achieve health by whipping the worn glands, the tired mus-cles, the jaded nerves to greater and greater effort untiliinally the whole machine breaks down, but a tonic, ladies and gentlemen, that helps Mother Nature renew worn glands, create new cells, build new muscles, and make new blood. Now, who's going to be the first to get one of these bottles of B.B.B., offered tonight not at the regular price of ten dollars, not even at the half price of five dollars, not at the special advertising introductory price of two dollars and a half, but at the ludicrously low price of one dollar! Only one dollar to build the body into renewed health!"

" ft

That had been twenty years before. Peggy, four years old, had been an orphan—too young to appreciate the tragedy that had deprived her of both father and mother—an orphan picked up and raised as their own child by Uncle Benedict and Aunt Martha.

r-'XrTj-'

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3B -

THE JEWELED BUTTERFLY 59

The days of the patent-medicine vender had long passed, but Uncle Benedict loved to review the patter he had used in his prime, the patter that had enabled him to travel around, living, as he expressed it, "on the fat of the yokels." It was before the days of Federal Trade Commission supervision, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the income tax.

Uncle Benedict had had a horse-drawn van that by day served as living quarters and laboratory, at night opened to provide a stage on which his magic fingers performed feats of sleight of hand while his magic tongue brought in a steady stream of silver coins on which there was no income tax and no necessity to account to anyone.

No one knew how much Uncle Benedict took in. He went where he wished, did what he wished, and spent his money as he wished.

When the patent-medicine business began to die, other infinitely more lucrative fields opened up. It was the era of mining stock and the wildcat oil speculator. Gradually Uncle Benedict drifted into a gang of clever sharpshooters, a gang in which Uncle Benedict was referred to as "The Sleeper." Never was there another man who could put on such a convincing act of sleeping while his ball-bearing mind was working out plans for fleecing suckers.

Uncle Benedict was at his best in the club car of a transcontinental train. He'd sit down, drink a beer, then let his head droop forward in slumber which became gently audible. People sitting next to him would discuss their business affairs with enough detail so that Uncle Benedict could figure out the correct approach.

Then Uncle Benedict would give a convulsive nod, a rather loud snore, waken with such evident embarrassment and look around him with such a panic-stricken apology for his snoring that the whole earful of people would spontaneously break into laughter.

After that Uncle Benedict was right at home.

Some ten years before, twinges of pain had announced the coming of arthritis. Gradually the long, slender fingers that had been able to deal cards so convincingly from the bottom of the deck, or pick pockets with such consummate skill that a wallet could be lifted, carefully examined, and returned to its proper place, all without the sucker's having the faintest idea that he had been "cased," began to thicken at the joints.

Now Uncle Benedict, confined to a wheelchair, dozed through the twilight of life, his mind as keenly active as ever, and even Martha, his wife, was unable to tell when his dozing was genuine slumber or when he was merely keeping his old act in practice.

Those who had known Uncle Benedict never forgot him. His friends worshiped the ground he walked on. It was a matter of police record that on three occasions suckers whom he had fleeced had refused to prosecute, stating publicly that they valued their brief companionship with Uncle Benedict far more than the money that he had taken from them.

One of his victims had even gone so far as to place an ad in the personal column reading Dear Benedict, Come home. All is forgiven. We like you even if it did cost us money. . . .

Not even Martha knew the ramifications of Uncle Benedict's connections. With a photographic memory for names, faces, and telephone numbers, Uncle Benedict kept no written memoranda. From time to time he would arouse himself from what seemed to be a sound sleep, send his wheelchair scurrying across to the telephone, dial a number, and give cryptic instructions. Occasionally men came to the house, men who regarded Uncle Benedict's slightest word as law, men who shook hands very gently so as not to bring pain to the thickened joints, men who left envelopes containing crisp green currency.

The envelopes went in the wastebasket, the currency went into Uncle Benedict's pocket.

"Income tax!" he'd snort, when Aunt Martha asked him about his business affairs. "You don't pay income tax on gifts. That's a free-will offering." And that was all anybody ever got out of him..

Only once had he elaborated. He explained to Martha, "I showed a man how to make some money. I thought out a scheme. I picked the one man who could put that scheme into operation. When the scheme paid off he sent me a gift. You couldn't report a gift like that to the income tax. I didn't even count the money. That would have been looking a gift horse in the mouth. . . ."

Aunt Martha answered Peggy's ring. "Why, hello, Peggy. What on earth are you doing?"

"I'm up to my neck," Peggy said.

"I read in the papers that you discovered the body of a girl who'd died from poison."

"That's right."

"Well, for heaven's sake, let's not stand here gassing. Come on in."

Aunt Martha had for years been Uncle Benedict's "assistant," the assistance consisting of wearing a pair of skin-fitting black tights, a skirt that fell barely below the hips, a plunging neckline, and a fixed smile.

When Uncle Benedict had come to the point in one of his exhibitions where it was necessary to make a swift substitution or a few passes with the hand that he wanted to be invisible to the audience, Martha would "spontaneously" wiggle her hips, the fixed smile would become broader and more animate, and then the hip motion would swing into a rhythm of pure viva- ciousness. As Uncle Benedict used to describe it, "It gave me the opportunity to do the trick, but by the time I'd got it done, half of the audience just didn't give a damn. They kept on watching Martha's hips."

"How's the old warrior?" Peggy asked.

Aunt Martha looked into the living room and said, "He's sound asleep, or thinking out a new scheme. I never know which."

The Sleeper was sitting in his chair, head drooping forward and slightly to one side. He was gently snoring. Abruptly he jerked into conscious wakefulness, choking off an extra loud snore in the middle. He looked at Peggy with every sign of embarrassment. "Good Lord, Peggy, how long have you been here?"

62 ERLE STANLEY GARDNER

Peggy knew from the sheer perfection of his act that the old Sleeper had merely been keeping in practice. ?

"Uncle Benedict, I'm in a pint of trouble."

"That ain't so much trouble," Benedict said. I

"I've been holding out on the police." j

"Well, why not? You can't go around blabbing all you § know."

She told him the whole story, and he listened carefully. 1 "What do you want?" he asked when she had finished. I

She said, "In the can receptacle for apartment five nineteen 1 are the broken remnants of a whiskey bottle. I wart that sal-vaged before the can collector gets it. I want to have it proc-essed for fingerprints, and then I want the latent prints photographed and preserved so they can be used as evidence at any time."

"What else do you want?"

"Your immoral support."

Uncle Benedict sent his wheelchair gliding over to the tele-phone. He dialed a number, waited, then said, "George?"

He waited a moment, then gave the address of the apartment house where Stella Lynn had lived. "There's a broken whiskey bottle in a galvanized receptacle in the backyard with the number five nineteen on the can. I want that broken bottle carefully preserved. Dust it for fingerprints. Fix any prints you find so they'll stay there a long time. I also want 'em photographed.

"Now, you'd better have somebody with you to be a witness in case you're called on to make an identification of that bot-tle. Your record ain't so good. . . . Who's that? . . . Yes, he'll be fine. ... If anybody says anything, flash a badge showing you're a sanitary inspector, and make a kick about some of the regulations being broken. . . . That's right, get them on the defensive. . . . Let me know when you have it. Good-by."

Uncle Benedict hung up and turned to Peggy. "That's taken care of. If you should need anything else, let me know."

His eyelids drooped and his head nodded.

THE JEWELED BUTTERFLY 63

Peggy took elaborate precautions to see that no one was following her and then called for the pictures she had left for a rush job.

In the privacy of her apartment she studied the nine pictures and was utterly disappointed. One picture at the beach showed a handsome young man in tight bathing trunks. He had blond wavy hair, an attractive smile, and a magnificent physique, but he meant nothing to Peggy.

There was a shot of an automobile parked by the beach, and two pictures of Stella Lynn in a bathing suit that would never have passed any censor anywhere at any time. The bathing suit had evidently been concocted by knotting three bandanas carefully arranged so they showed all the curves of her figure. It was a suit that was not intended to have any contact with the water.

There was a picture showing the back of an automobile, with a young man lifting two suitcases from the trunk. A series of small cabins with garages showed in the background of this picture.

Peggy looked for the license number on the automobile. Un-fortunately the man was standing so that he concealed all but the last three figures—861.

Peggy studied a picture of a parked car with a stretch of beach in the background. Here again there was no opportunity to get any part of the license number. The car was shown sideways.

There was a picture of a picnic lunch spread out on the beach. The young man with the slender waist and square shoulders was seated cross-legged.

The telephone rang, and Peggy answered it.

Don Kimberly's voice said, "Thank heaven I've caught you,

Peggy."

"What's the matter?"

"I got up to the office this morning and learned that a police detective was looking for me. I thought we should find out a little more about that letter before I talked with anyone, so I've been hiding out, but I didn't want to hide out from you,

and I didn't want you to think that I'd left you to stand the gaff. I've been trying to get you all day."

She felt a big surge of relief. "Oh, that's fine, Don," she said. "I'm glad you thought of me. Where are you now?"

"Right at the moment," he said, "I'm at a pay telephone."

She said, "I understand you're quite a photographer."

"I do quite a bit of photographic work, yes."

"I have some films that I think should be—well, I think we should enlarge one or two of them."

"Where did you get the films?"

She was silent.

Kimberly said, "Oh-oh, I get it."

"How long will it take to do it?"

"How many are there?"

"Nine. But I think only two or three are important."

"Nothing to it," he said. "We could make enlargements just as big as you want, or pick out the part of the film you wanted enlarged, and then we could go out to dinner. By the time we got back, the enlargements would be dry and we could study them carefully."

"Could you do all that yourself?"

"Sure. I'm all fixed up for it. I'll come around and get you."

"All right, but give me half an hour to shower and dress."

"Thirty minutes on the dot, and I'll be there," he said.

Peggy hung up and dashed for the shower, experiencing a peculiar feeling of exultation that Don hadn't left her to face the problems alone.

Don Kimberly showed Peggy around his apartment with a sense of pride, pointing out the framed photographs on the walls.

"You took all these?" she asked.

"All of them," he said. "I like dramatic cloud effects. You can see from these pictures that I've gone in for thunderheads and storms over the ocean. Of course, you deliberately dramatize that stuff by overcorrecting with a red filter, but it gives you a sense of power, of the surge of the elements, of the forces of nature."

"It's wonderful," she said. "They're—they're believable. They're true. They somehow symbolize life."

"I'm glad you like them. Want to see the darkroom now?"

"I'd love to."

"Let's take a look at those films, Peggy."

She handed him the envelope. He brushed the prints aside and studied the negatives.

"Well," he said, "the girl used an expensive camera."

"How do you know without seeing it?"

"You can tell by the films," he said. "The films are wire sharp. That means she had a coupled range finder and a high- grade lens. That's why I like to look at negatives instead of prints. The negatives tell the story. Lots of times a cheaper lens will give you a warm black that makes the print seem all right, but the minute you start to blow it up it fuzzes out on you. We'll make some enlargements right away."

"Where's the darkroom?" she asked.

He laughed. "This is a bachelor apartment. There was a big pantry off the kitchen, a lot bigger than I needed, so I made it lightproof, installed running water, and fixed up a darkroom. Come on in and I'll show you my workshop."

He led the way into the darkroom and showed Peggy the two enlarging cameras. One of them used what he called "cold light," and the other used condensers for sharpness of detail.

Kimberly poured chemicals into stainless-steel trays. "We'll have these pictures enlarged in a jiffy. Why so thoughtful, Peggy?"

"Because I want to ask you something that's probably none of my business."

"What?"

"You know of Stella's condition?"

"Yes."

"Were you," she asked, "that is—were you—"

"You mean am I the man in the case?"

"Yes."

"No." He was silent for a few moments. Then he added, "I've known Stella for years. She was working in a cafeteria when I first knew her. She was a good-natured, lovable kid. I saw her a few times. Then someone put me on a committee to pick the queen of some local festivities. There was a lineup of a lot of girls in bathing suits, and to my surprise I saw Stella Lynn in the lineup.

"I don't think the fact that I knew her influenced my judgment. Anyway, I voted for her, and so did the other two judges. She was elected queen of the outfit. That was three years ago. She's put on weight since then, but at that time— well, she had a good figure."

"Go ahead," Peggy said, then added, "that is, if you want to."

"I want to. I want you to know what the situation was. Stella rang me up to thank me for voting for her, and I congratulated her on winning the contest on sheer merit. Then I lost track of her for a while. Then she rang up again and said she wanted to get away from the small town, wanted to go to the city. I gathered there had been a heartbreak."

"That's the part I wanted to know about," Peggy said.

"Why?"

"Because I'm trying to reconstruct Stella's life."

"Actually," Don Kimberly said, "I don't know too much about her background, Peggy. Do you believe that?"

"Of course."

"There are some who won't," he said thoughtfully. "However, to get back to your question. She was in love with someone. I don't know who he was, but I have an idea he was a no- good. Stella wanted to get out of town. She was pretty well broken up, and she was broke financially. I had to lend her money to clean up a few bills she had around Cofferville and help her get started on a new job. I had no idea her new job was in our company until I met her there."

"E. B. Halsey fixed that up for her," she said.

"I know. E.B. knew her dad in Cofferville. He's been dead some five years, but E.B'. knew him and liked him."

"And knew her?"

"Apparently."

"How well?"

"I don't know. Stella never talked about her friends. I've been trying to contact E.B. He isn't available."

"I know. This money you lent her, Don—did she pay it back?"

"Yes. Why?"

"She needed a lump sum. You gave her a check?"

"Yes."

"But when she paid you back it must have been just a little here and a little there in cash."

"It was."

"Then she didn't have anything to show that she paid you?"

"Are you suggesting I'd try to make her pay twice?"

"I'm thinking of the way the police will look at it," she said. "The banks keep records on microfilm of all checks that pass through their hands."

"I know," he said curtly, and she could tell that he was worried.

The doorbell rang sharply, insistently.

Kimberly looked at her in dismay. "I was hoping we could have a chance to get together on a story before—I'll have to answer it, Peggy, particularly since you're here."

He led the way out of the darkroom and opened the front door.

Detective Fred Nelson and a young woman stood at the door. "Hello, Kimberly," Nelson said easily. "This is Frances Bushnell—in case that means anything to you."

Don Kimberly, without inviting them in, said, "How do you do, Miss Bushnell."

"It's Mrs. Bushnell," Nelson said. "We're coming in, Kimberly." He pushed past Kimberly, saw Peggy, and said, "Well, well, it seems the gang's all here. Sit down, folks." "Since you're playing the part of host," Kimberly said coldly, "perhaps you'd like to mix some drinks?"

"Now, keep your shirt on," Nelson told him. "This is business. I'm going to be brief. Mrs. Bushnell was a close friend of Stella Lynn's. She and her husband and Stella's boyfriend used to go out on foursomes. Tell them about those foursomes, Frances."

Frances Bushnell seemed ill at ease.

"Go on," Nelson said, "get it off your chest. Don't pull any punches. We may as well find out where we stand now as later."

"Well . . ." Mrs. Bushnell said, and paused to clear her throat as though not quite certain of herself, "Pete, that was my husband—he still is—and Stella, and Bill Everett—"

"Now, who is Bill Everett?" Nelson interrupted.

"That was Stella's boyfriend."

"And when was this?"

"When she was in Cofferville, working in the cafeteria as cashier."

"All right, go ahead."

"Well, Pete and I and Stella and Bill used to go out on weekends together. We were all friends. Pete and I got married. I got to know Stella quite well."

"What about this Bill guy?" Nelson asked.

"He turned out to be no good. I think he got into some trouble somewhere. I know it broke Stella's heart. I think she was really fond of him."

"How long ago was this?"

"About two years ago."

"Then what?"

"Pete and I got married and came here to live. When Stella came she looked us up. I still kept in touch with her."

"Now, when was the last time you saw her?"

"Yesterday afternoon."

"Where?"

"In a cocktail bar on Fifth Street."

"You just happened to run into her, or did you have an appointment, or what?"

"It's a sort of gathering place. Some of us girls who work in offices drop in for a little chat and a cocktail. Stella was there."

"What did she say?"

"Well, we talked for a while about this and that and I asked her if she wanted to have dinner with me and she said no, that she had a dinner date with a Prince Charming who was taking her to a night spot—that she had something to tell him that was going to jolt him."

"Did she tell you the man's name?"

"Yes."

"What was it?"

"Don Kimberly."

"Did she tell you she was going to let him know he was about to become a father?"

"She said she was going to tell him something that was going to jolt him."

Nelson turned to Kimberly. "Thought you'd like to hear this," he said. "In view of Mrs. Bushnell's story I think I'll take a look around—unless, of course, you have some objection. If you do, I'll get a warrant and look anyway."

"I see," Kimberly said sarcastically. "The good old police system. If you can't solve a crime, start trying to pin it on someone."

"Who said anybody was trying to pin anything on you?"

"You might as well have said it," Kimberly blazed. "Go right ahead. Look through the place. I'll just go along with you to make sure you don't plant anything."

"Now, is that nice?" Nelson asked. He got up and walked around the living room, then pointed to a door and asked, "What's this?"

"Bedroom," Kimberly said curtly.

Nelson went in. The others followed him. Nelson looked around, opened the door of the clothes closet, carefully studied

the clothes, looked into the bathroom, and gave particular attention to the bottles in the medicine cabinet.

Then he went into the kitchen, pointed to another door, and asked, "What's that?"

"Darkroom."

1 t 5

Nelson pushed in. The others stood in the doorway. Nelson said, "You have your amber light on. You're all set up for something."

"Yes, I was doing a little enlarging."

"He was showing me something about photography," Peggy said.

"I see, " Nelson said in a tone of voice that indicated his mind was far away. He began opening the various bottles on the shelves and smelling the contents. He said, "I do quite a bit of photography myself. You've got a little more expensive equipment here than I can afford. That's a swell enlarger. You like the condensers better than the cold light?"

Kimberly made no answer.

Nelson whistled a tune as he moved around the darkroom, looking over the bottles, studying the labels, smelling the contents.

Suddenly he paused. "What the hell's this?" he asked.

"Potassium bromide. If you're a photographer, you should know."

"The hell it is. That stuff comes in large crystals. This is— smell it."

"I don't think it has any odor," Kimberly said.

"Well, this stuff does. Take a smell. And don't get your nose too close to it. You might wish you hadn't."

Kimberly sniffed the bottle gingerly, then turned puzzled eyes toward the detective. "Why," he said, "that smells— smells like—"

"Exactly," Nelson agreed. "It smells like potassium cyanide. It is potassium cyanide."

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Abruptly he put the bottle down, put the cork back in place, and said, "I don't want anyone to touch that bottle. I'm going to process it for fingerprints. I left my fingerprints around the

neck of the bottle, but I didn't leave them on the rest of it. And now, Mr. Donald Kimberly, I'm sorry, but I'm arresting you for the murder of Stella Lynn."

In a taxicab headed toward Uncle Benedict's, Peggy studied the purloined pictures, trying to penetrate the details of the shadows.

Don Kimberly's arrest had been a terrific shock. The statement of Mrs. Bushnell had been like a devastating bomb.

Peggy had a blind faith in Don Kimberly, but she couldn't combat his arrest except by digging up new and convincing evidence. The morning newspapers would sound the death knell of her new job unless something could be turned up. She hoped her uncle had been able to get some fingerprints from that broken whiskey bottle.

The beach scene, Peggy concluded, was a picnic, and apparently it had been a twosome—just Stella Lynn and the young man in the bathing suit who appeared in the pictures. He had taken a couple of pictures of Stella. The costume Stella was wearing would not have been permitted on a public beach, so these pictures must have been taken at a private part of the beach. Had they been taken before the others or afterward?

The series of small cabins, all uniform in appearance, suggested a motel, probably somewhere along the beach.

The cab slowed to a stop at Uncle Benedict's. "Wait for me," she told the driver, and ran up the steps.

Aunt Martha came to the door. "Heaven's sake, Peggy, give a body a chance to get there. You rang three times while I was putting my knitting down. What's the trouble?"

"Nothing. Where's Uncle?"

"Right here. Come on in."

Peggy walked over to the wheelchair and kissed Benedict on the forehead.

"What's the trouble?" he asked

M t

5 W l 4

"Nothing in particular, but I wanted to see if you'd found out anything about that broken bottle and—" "Dammit, Peggy," he said irritably, "I've taught you to lie better than that."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Everything. Never run your words together when you're lying. Sounds too much like reciting a formula. Never let a sucker feel he's hearing a rehearsed line. When you're lying you want to be thoroughly at ease—never have tension in your voice.

"Keep your sentences short. Don't intersperse explanations with lies. That's where the average liar falls down. He puts himself on the defensive in the middle of what should be the most convincing part of his lie.

"Now sit down and tell me what's handed you such a jolt. Tell the truth, if you can. If you can't, tell the kind of lie that'll make me proud of you. Now, what's up?"

Peggy said, "They arrested Don Kimberly for Stella's murder."

"What evidence?"

"That's the tough part. They found a bottle of potassium cyanide among his photographic chemicals, right over the sink in his darkroom."

Uncle Benedict threw back his grizzled head and laughed.

"It's no laughing matter," she said.

"Makes him out so damned stupid, that's all. There he is with a whole darkroom. Got a sink and running water and everything, eh?"

"That's right."

"How many more people did they think he was aiming to kill with cyanide?"

"What do you mean?"

"Suppose he had killed her. He's scored a bull's-eye. That was all he wanted. He'd done the job. He's got no more use for poison. He'd wash the rest of it down the drain.

"Nope, somebody's planting evidence. Seems funny the cops didn't think about that. Perhaps they have. Maybe they're giving this person lots of rope for self-hanging purposes."

Listening to him, she realized the logic of what he said and suddenly felt much better. She spread the pictures out in front of him.

Uncle Benedict's eyes lit up. "Good-looking babe," he said, studying the pictures of Stella in the bathing suit. "Darn good- looking."

Aunt Martha, fixing a pot of hot tea for Peggy, snorted. "You'd think he was a Don Juan to listen to him."

"Casanova, Casanova," Uncle Benedict corrected her irritably. "All right, what about these pictures, Peggy?"

"What can you tell me about them?"

He picked up the pictures and studied them. Then he said, "This is the motel where they stayed Saturday."

"Who stayed there?"

"This girl in a bathing suit and the fellow who's with her."

"Uncle Benedict, you shouldn't say things like that without knowing. You don't know they stayed there, and you can't know it was Saturday."

"I don't, eh?" He grinned. "It sticks out plain as the nose on your face. This picture with the beach in the background was taken Sunday morning. Same car here as in the other picture. Put two and two together."

"You're jumping at conclusions and not being very fair to Stella."

"Not as bad as what the coroner did, broadcasting a girl's secrets that way. Ought to be ashamed of himself. Two months pregnant, and he puts it in the paper!"

"He had to do that," she said. "It's part of the evidence. It shows the motivation for murder."

"Uh-huh," Uncle Benedict said.

"What makes you think it was Saturday noon in one picture and Sunday morning in the other?" she asked.

"Use your eyes," he told her. "Here's a motel. See all those garages with cars in them?"

"Yes."

"Where's the sun?"

"What do you mean, where's the sun?"

"Look at your shadows," he said. "Here, hand me that ruler."

She handed it to him. His arthritis-crippled hands moved the ruler over the photograph so that one end was against a patch of shadow, the other end against the top of an ornamental light pole. "All right, there's the angle of your sun, good and high."

"All right, so what?"

"Look at the automobiles in the garages. Most motel patrons are transients. They're hitting the road. They want to come in at night, have a bath, sleep, get up early, be on their way.

"Now, look at this one. Automobiles in almost every garage, and from the angle of the sun it's either three in the afternoon or nine in the morning. Look carefully, and you can see it's morning because here's a cabin with a key in a half-open door. The key has a big metal tag hanging from it so tenants won't cart it off, and it's caught the sunlight and reflected it right into the camera. That car got away early. If it had been afternoon the key would have been in the office instead of the door.

"Only one car is gone. Most of the people using the motel aren't traveling, and that means it's Sunday. The guests are weekenders, people who came Saturday to spend a weekend. Spend it where? Not in a motel, unless that motel's at a beach.

MFC--

"Now look at this other picture. Warm, sunny day. Hardly any surf. See that wharf out there? Lots of fishermen on it. Those are people who came early and—"

"I don't sec any wharf."

"Take a good look," he said.

"That's just a black spot Qut there—no, wait a minute—"

"Black spot nothing," he said. "It's the end of a pier. See it sticking out there? Take a magnifying glass. You'll see people all bunched up, fishing at the far end of the—"

"Of course," she said. "I hadn't noticed it before."

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"Now, look at the people. Here's where a road runs down to the beach. Jammed with cars parked all along it. But people

haven't spread out on the north end of the beach yet. On a Sunday the whole thing would be crowded. The way it is now, just about the number of people are on the beach who would have come in those parked cars. They haven't had to park their cars way uptown and walk down to the beach.

"See the shadow of the automobile? Sun's pretty much over-head. It's just about noon. Wouldn't get that big a play on a beach this time of year except Saturday. Sunday noon it'd be even bigger. All right, what more do you want to know?"

She said, "I'd like to know who owns that automobile."

"Why don't you find out?"

"How can I?"

He said, "How many beaches are there around here that have piers sticking out that far? How many motels in that city—"

"What city?"

He tapped the ornamental lighting fixture. "See the peculiar design on that lighting fixture? I could tell you a lot about those fixtures. Pal of mine took over the sale of ornamental lighting fixures to a city. There's a great opportunity! That's real graft. Perfectly legitimate. I guess that's why I never cared much for it, but I can tell you—"

"You don't have to tell me," she said. "I know where it is myself now. Why in the world didn't I notice the significance of that ornamental streetlight before?"

"Preoccupied," he said. "That's 'cause you're in love."

"I am not!"

"Bet you are! Wrapped up in that Beau Brummel guy they took to prison."

"I am not, but—I would like to impress him once with Peggy Castle, the girl, and not just Peggy Castle, the logical thinker."

"How are you going to do it?"

"I'm going to prove he didn't commit the murder."

Uncle Benedict chuckled. "Listen to her, Martha. She wants him to notice her as a cute trick and not as an efficient thinking machine, so she goes out and uses her brain! Don't use your brain when you're trying to impress a man, Peggy. Don't

let him think you have any brain. Have curves. Be helpless and—"

"You leave Peggy alone," Aunt Martha said. "She's doing it her way."

Uncle Benedict shook his head. "Men can't see glamour and brains together, Martha. Either one or the other."

Aunt Martha put down the teapot. "What did you marry me for?"

His eyes were reminiscent. "Glamour, curves," he said. "Boy, when you walked out on the stage with tights on, you—"

"So," she blazed indignantly, "now you're trying to tell me I haven't any brains!"

Uncle Benedict shook his head. "Arguing with a woman," he said, "is like trying to order the weather to suit the farmers. Where are you goin' in such a rush, Peggy?"

Peggy was dashing for the door. "I'm not going, I'm gone."

Peggy felt a surge of triumph when within less than an hour from the time she reached the beach city she had located the motel. The proprietress was reluctant to discuss registrations.

"We're running a decent, clean, respectable place," she said. "Of course, we don't ask people to show us marriage licenses every time they come in, but they don't do that even in the Waldorf-Astoria. We just try to look 'em over and—"

Peggy patiently interrupted to explain that hers was a private matter, that if necessary she could get official authority, but that she didn't want to and she didn't think the woman wanted her to.

That secured instant results. Peggy examined the weekend registrations.

The car was 5N20861, registered to Peter Bushnell. Mr. and Mrs. Bushnell had spent the weekend in a cabin.

Peggy could have cried with disappointment. All her hopes were dashed. If she could have proved that Stella had had a boyfriend with whom she had spent the weekend, then Stella's date with Don Kimberly would have looked like a mere busi-

ness date. But now that had been swept away. Stella had spent the weekend with the Bushnells.

Fighting back tears, Peggy started back to her apartment. Then a thought struck her with the force of a blow. She felt certain Mrs. Bushnell had said that Pete was "still" married to her. Did that mean . . . ?

Peggy frantically consulted the address she had taken from the registration book at the motel. It was a ten-to-one shot, but she was taking it. Peter Bushnell was going to have an unexpected visitor.

She drove rapidly to the address, an old-fashioned, unpretentious, comfortable-looking apartment house.

A card in the mailbox told her Peter Bushnell's apartment was on the second floor. Peggy didn't even stop for the elevator, but raced up the stairs to the apartment. A slender ribbon of illumination showed from the underside of the door.

Her heart hammering with excitement, she rang the bell.

Peggy heard a chair being pushed back, and then the door opened and Peggy found herself looking at the face of the man in the photograph. Now it was a haggard face, drawn with suffering.

"You're Peter Bushnell," she said. "I'm Peggy Castle. I want to talk with you."

She stepped past him into the apartment, turned, smiled reassuringly, and waited for him to close the door.

"Won't you—won't you sit down?" he said. "It's rather late, but—"

"I wanted to talk with you about Stella," she said.

His face showed consternation. "I—I have nothing to say."

"Oh, yes, you have. I know some of the facts. In justice to yourself and in justice to Stella's memory you'll have to give me the rest of them."

"What facts?"

"For instance, the weekend at the Seaswept Motel. You registered under your own name. Why did you do that, Pete?"

"Why not? The car's registered in my name. Why shouldn't I have used it?"

"Because you registered Stella as your wife."

"Well—so what?"

"Suppose Frances found out about it?"

"How would she find out?"

"I found out about it."

"How?"

Peggy merely smiled. She said, "Tell me about Stella, Pete."

"Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm an investigator."

"With the police?"

"No. I represent tne company Stella worked for. You don't want Stella's name dragged through the mud, and we don't want it dragged through the mud. You were in love with her, weren't you, Pete?"

He nodded. His face showed anguish.

"Now, then, let's get down to brass tacks," Peggy said. "You married Frances. Stella was going with Bill Everett. You went on weekend parties together, didn't you?"

He said, "That was before I was married to Frances. Then Fran and I got married and—well, I found out it was a mistake before we'd been married three months."

"Why was it a mistake, Pete?"

"Because I had been in love with Stella all the time and hadn't realized it. You have no idea what it was like to be out with Stella. She was such good company. She never sulked, never got mad, never complained. She took everything just the way it came, and she always had such a good time that you had a good time too. She enjoyed life. She got a kick out of everything.

"Fran was just the opposite. Fran had to have things just so. When she was with a foursome she hid behind Stella's good nature so you didn't see her real character. After we were married and it was just the two of us—well, it showed up then."

"What happened?"

"I wanted a divorce, and Fran wouldn't give me one. She knew by that time I was in love with Stella and did everything she could to block us. She swore that if she couldn't have me, Stella couldn't.''

"So you and Frances separated, and you and Stella started living together?"

"Well, in a way. Not quite like that."

"Why didn't you live together all the time, Pete? Why those surreptitious weekends?"

"Stella was afraid of Fran. She didn't want Fran to find it out, but—well, in a way we were married.'.'

"What do you mean?"

"We went down to Mexico and had a marriage ceremony performed."

"When?"

"Four or five months ago."

"Why didn't you tell the police about this?"

"Well, I was trying to make up my mind. That's what I was doing when you rang the bell. I don't know what to do. Fran, of course, would have me right where she wanted me, but under the circumstances—I just don't know.

"Fran can be a bearcat. She's been married before. The man she was married to wrote me a letter. He said Fran was poison, that she wouldn't give him a divorce, that she was a dog in the manger."

"What did you do?"

"I hunted him out and beat him up."

Peggy, looking at the anguished face, was thinking rapidly. There had to be an angle—there had to be!

"You knew Stella was going to have a baby?"

"Yes. Our baby. She'd only just found out herself. She told me Saturday."

Meeting his eyes, Peggy said, "Pete, she really was your wife. Your marriage to Fran was illegal. Fran had never been divorced."

"She told me she'd been divorced."

"Did you check on it?"

"No, I took her word for it."

"You were married to Stella, in Mexico. That marriage was legal. Stella was your legal wife. Now tell me about Bill Everett."

"That crook! He ran with a gang. They all got caught on that stickup in Cofferville."

"Had he been in touch with Stella recently?"

"Not that I know of. Not since he got out of prison."

"You haven't seen him?"

Pete shook his head.

"Did you know Stella had asked Don Kimberly to meet her at the Royal Pheasant?"

"No, 1 didn't. She didn't say anything."

"Do you know where Bill Everett is?"

"No."

"You have no idea how I could locate him?"

"No."

"How long had he been mixed up with the gang, Pete? Was it just one slip or—"

"One slip, nothing," Pete said. "The guy was just no good right from the start. He'd been lying to us all the time. That's the way he was making his money—he was a member of a stickup gang. He thought he was smart, thought he was beating the law."

"Do you know the other members of the gang?"

He shook his head. "Guess you could find out who they were from the court records. They were all caught on that service- station stickup."

"They'd been working together for some time?"

"Apparently so," Pete said. "I don't know too much about it. Anyway, I'm all broken up. I can't think straight."

Peggy said, "Try to think. Tell me everything you know about Bill."

"The gang used to communicate with each other by ads in the personal column of a newspaper. Bill told me that once. They'd arrange meeting places and things of that sort. That's all I know."

"Pete, I want you to do exactly what I am going to tell you."

"What?" he asked.

"This," she said, "is the way to clear the thing up, provided you do exactly as I tell you. I want you to go down to the morgue and claim the body of Stella Lynn. Claim the body as that of your wife. Do you understand? You're her husband."

"But," he said, "our marriage—well, you know, it wasn't—"

"How do you know it wasn't? You have Stella's memory to think of. Do exactly as I tell you. Go down to the morgue at once. Claim the body on the ground that you're Stella's husband. Don't let anyone get you to admit there's even the faintest doubt in your mind about the validity of that Mexican marriage. Do you understand?"

He nodded.

"Do you have any money?" she asked.

"Enough."

"I can help—"

"No. This is on me," he said. As he pushed back his chair his manner showed the relief of one who has had a load lifted from his shoulders.

In the newspaper office Peggy consulted the back files, carefully scanning the Want Ads section.

In a paper of four days before she found the ad in the personal column

Fran, get in touch with me on a big deal. I can't handle it

alone, but together we can make big dough. Call Essex 4-6810

any time day or night. Bill E.

Pieces of the jigsaw puzzle were beginning to fall into place into Peggy's mind. The next question was whether she should pour her story into the ears of Detective Fred Nelson or get some additional evidence.

A silver dime was to determine Peggy's next course. She called Essex 4-6810 and waited, her pulses pounding with excitement.

If things went through without a hitch now, she'd handle it herself. If she struck a snag over the telephone, her next call would be to Detective Nelson.

At length a masculine voice, wary, uncordial, said, "Yeah?"

"Is Bill Everett there?"

"Who wants him?"

"A girl."

The man laughed and said, "You could have fooled me."

She heard his voice raised in a call. "Bill in there? Some dame wants him on the phone."

A moment later she heard steps approaching the phone another voice, cold, guarded, but curious, said, "Yes? Hello." "Bill?"

"Who is it?"

"I'm a friend of Fran's. It's about a butterfly."

The voice at the other end of the line instantly lost all coldness and reserve.

"Well, it's about time!" he exclaimed. "Where the hell is Fran? Why didn't she call me about the insurance interview?"

"She's where she can't call."

"Good Lord, you don't mean she's—"

"Now, take it easy," Peggy said. "I have a message for you."

"What is it?"

"Don't be silly. I can't give it to you over the phone. Where can I meet you?"

"You got a car?"

"Yes."

"Come on out here."

"Now, wait a minute," Peggy said. "There's a lot of this I didn't get from Fran. She only gave me the number to call and—"

"Adams and Elmore," he said. "It's on the corner. What kind of a car are you driving?"

"Green coupe."

"How long will it take you?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"Okay, okay, get out here! Park your bus on Elmore just before you get to Adams—on the right-hand side of the street, headed south. Sit there and wait for me. Got that?"

"Yes."

THE JEWELED BUTTERFLY 83

"Now, when is Fran going to—"

"Wait until I see you," Peggy interrupted. "You talk too much over the phone."

"Damned if I don't," Everett said, and she could hear the receiver being slammed into place at the other end.

Peggy then dialed police headquarters, asked for Detective Fred Nelson, and was lucky enough to find him in.

"This is Peggy Castle," she said.

"Oh, yes, hello." His voice was more cordial than she had expected.

"I have a lead on the Stella Lynn case."

"Yeah, I know," Nelson said. "You have lots of leads. You pulled the trigger on a lot of publicity, didn't you?"

"Why, what do you mean?"

"Nice and dramatic," he said. "It worked out a thousand percent. Grief-crazed husband stumbles into the morgue, tearfully claims the body of Stella Lynn, his wife. How the newspapers fell for that one! They just called me from the morgue."

He stopped talking, and Peggy said nothing.

"You there?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Well, why don't you say something?"

"You're doing the talking. I called you up to tell you something. When you get ready to listen let me know."

He laughed. "All right, I'll listen, but don't think I was born yesterday. I've been around a while."

"I'm quite certain you have," Peggy said. "As I said, I have a lead in the Lynn case."

"What is it this time?"

Peggy said, "Stella wanted Don Kimberly to meet her at the Royal Pheasant because she wanted to find out if it would be possible to negotiate for the return of the gems on that Garrison job."

"What!" Nelson exclaimed.

"Bill Everett, Stella's ex-boyfriend, was mixed up in that job. Now he's got a fortune in gems and can't fence them. You know what happens at a time like that. He wants to know

fca

m-

Task--.

whether he can make a deal with the insurance company."

"Who's this fellow you say pulled the job?"

"Bill Everett. He's been in trouble before. He was picked up in Cofferville for the robbery of a service station."

"Uh-huh, go ahead."

"1 have a date with him. He's going to give me the low- down. Now, if you wanted to cooperate—"

"I'm sorry, Miss Castle," Nelson said. "You're out of bounds. Cooperating with you doesn't do anything except get your company off the hot stove and leave the Police Department holding the bag. If you have any chestnuts in the fire, just get yourself another cat's-paw."

"But don't you want to recover—"

"I want to recover from a couple of bad blows below the belt," Nelson said. "You don't know whether Bushnell was legally married to Stella Lynn or not, but you've got the story nicely planted on the front page of every newspaper, together with pictures of the stricken husband. I don't think I care about being a stalking horse. Where is this Bill Everett?"

"Find out, jf you're so damned smart," she blazed, and slammed down the receiver.

She drove rapidly to Elmore, followed it down toward Adams, eased the car to a stop, and waited.

Sitting there in the dark, she experienced a feeling of complete loneliness. The motor of the car made sharp crackling noises as the metal cooled off. Five blocks behind her was a through highway. The sound of traffic, muted by distance, came to her ears.

A man walked by but seemed to take no notice of the car. He moved rapidly, heels pounding the pavement as if he were going somewhere in a hurry.

Peggy waited another five minutes. Suddenly she was conscious of a shadow at the right-rear fender of the car. Then the door on the right-hand side swung open. A man eased into the seat beside her and said, "Okay, wind her up."

Peggy asked, "Are you—"

"Wind her up, I said," the man told her. "Get the hell out of here."

Peggy started the motor and glided away from the curb. The man at her side swung around so he could look through the rear window and carefully watched the street behind him.

"Turn right on Adams," he said.

Peggy turned right.

"Left at the next intersection."

Peggy followed instructions.

"Pick up a little speed," he told her. "Don't dawdle along. All right, now give it the gun and turn right at the next intersection. . . . Okay, left again. . . . Okay."

At length the man eased back into a more comfortable position, ceased watching the road behind them, and fastened his eyes on Peggy.

Peggy was conscious of a distinct feeling of disquiet, a peculiar apprehension. Suppose everything didn't go right. Suppose . . .

"It's your dime," the man said. "Start talking."

Peggy knew she had to draw him out. So far she had got by on bluff and surmise. Now she was going to need facts, and the man beside her was the only person from whom she could get those facts.

The man continued, "What's the pitch? Let's see who you are first. I'm Bill. Who are you?"

Peggy slipped her hand down the opening of her blouse, brought out the jeweled butterfly, held it so he could see it for a brief instant, then popped it back into her blouse.

"Hey, wait a minute," he said. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"Where do you suppose?"

"Here, pull into this next alley," Bill said. "We're going to have a showdown on this."

She felt something prodding at her side and, glancing down, saw the glint of light on blued steel.

"Get over there. Turn down that alley." His shoe crushed her foot against the brake pedal.

With a little cry of pain she jeiked her foot away. The car swerved. The gun jabbed hard into her ribs. "Turn down that alley!"

She bit her lip, fighting back the pain in her foot, and turned down the alley.

Bill reached over and turned off the ignition switch. "Now, baby," he said, "if you're trying to pull a fast one, what's going to happen to you isn't—"

Abruptly the car was flooded with brilliance as a following car, running without lights, suddenly blazed its headlights on the parked car.

Bill shoved the gun under his coat. "If that's a prowl car,"

he warned, "and you make a squawk, I'll kill you just as sure

„ „ i» as—

A figure jumped out of the car behind and came striding forward. A man's sneering voice said, "Well, Bill, trying to cut yourself a piece of cake, eh?"

At the sound of that voice Peggy could see Bill's face twist in a spasm of fear. He jerked his body around. "Butch!" he exclaimed, and then after a moment he added, "Am I glad you're here! I've caught a dame trying to pull a fast one on us."

"Yeah. You look as though you're glad to see us," Butch said.

Another man came up on the other side of the car and stood at the open window on Peggy's side. He was a tall, cadaverous man with lips so thin that his mouth looked as though it might have been cut across his face with a razor blade.

The man Bill had addressed as Butch suid, "Get in and take the wheel, Slim. Drive up to Bill's place. Bill, you get in with us. I want to talk with you."

Slim opened the door and slapped Peggy's thigh with the back of his hand. "Move over, cutie."

Butch opened the door on the right-hand side. "Come on, Bill."

Bill said, "Sure, sure." His voice was too full of cordiality. "I want to talk things over with you guys, but listen, I think this

babe is maybe a private dick or something. She's trying to pull a fast one."

"Yeah," Butch said. "We know all about this babe. Come on, get in, Bill. We're going to take a nice little ride and have a nice little talk."

Bill got out of the car. Peggy slid over on the seat, and Slim took the wheel.

"You'll have to back out," Butch said to Slim. "It's a blind alley."

"Okay."

"You take the lead," Butch went on. "If she makes any trouble, bean her." Butch moved away with Bill.

Slim reached into his side coat pocket, pulled out a blackjack, and looped the thong around his wrist. "Let's not have any misunderstanding, sister," he said. "One peep out of you, one false move, and I'll knock you so cold it'll be next week before you come to. I'm going to be driving with one hand. This other one is ready to chop you down whenever you make a yip. Get me?"

She smiled at him and said, "Aren't you making a mountain out of a molehill? Perhaps if you'll tell me—"

"Yeah, I know," Slim said, "pulling the old sex charm. It doesn't work, babe. When I'm on a business deal I'm cold as a cucumber. Now, turn your kisser around here so I can take a little precaution against any sudden screams."

"What do you mean?"

He grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her head over to him roughly. She felt the slap of a hand across her mouth and something sticky against her cheeks. Almost before she understood what he was doing, a wide strip of adhesive tape had been slapped across her mouth. Slim's cigarette- stained fingers massaged the tape firmly into place.

"All right, baby," he said. "Don't try to raise your hands to the adhesive tape. The minute you do, you get clouted. Don't make any grabs for. the steering wheel. Don't try anything funny. If you reach for the door handle, you'll never know what hit you. Okay, here we go."

He drove skillfully with his left hand, his right on the back of the seat, the blackjack ready. The glint in his eyes told Peggy he was, as he had said, cold as a cucumber when he was on a business deal.

Slim tooled the car along until they glided to the curb in front of an apartment house a block from Adams and Elmore.

"Just sit still," Slim cautioned.

The other car parked behind them. Peggy saw Butch escorting Bill Everett, saw that Bill was talking volubly, rapidly, that Butch wasn't even listening.

A third man came up to address Slim briefly. "I'll go ahead and make sure the coast is clear," he said. "Wait for my flash."

"Okay," Slim said.

Bill and Butch moved into the apartment house. A light came on in a ground-floor window. The curtain was promptly drawn, shutting off the light.

A few seconds later a flashlight blinked twice.

"Okay, babe," Slim said. "Let's go."

He reached across her, opened the door, and shoved her out. She looked desperately up and down the deserted street.

Slim's hand moved deftly down her arm, caught her wrist, doubled it back until excruciating pain caused her to take a step forward to ease the pressure.

Slim stepped forward with her. The pressure remained the same.

Peggy tried to scream, but only a little whimpering noise came from behind the adhesive tape. In the end she was all but running, trying to keep just enough ahead of Slim to ease the pressure on her wrist.

She was hurried along a dark corridor. The third man, who had evidently been driving the other car, jerked open a door. Peggy was pushed inside.

Slim tossed her purse at Butch. "Catch," he said.

Butch opened her purse and examined her driving license and identification.

"Honest, Butch," Bill said, "this is a new one on me. She made contact and—"

Butch looked up from Peggy's driving license. "Shut him up, Slim."

"Okay," Slim said, moving forward.

Bill said, "No, no, I am on the level with this. She—"

Slim swung the blackjack with the deft wrist motion. The peculiar thunk sounded as though someone had slapped an open palm against a ripe watermelon. Bill turned glassy-eyed, his head dropped forward, he slumped down in the chair, and then, with fear in his eyes, he held on to a thin margin of consciousness.

"No, no," he screamed. "You guys aren't going to do that to me."

The peculiar thunk was repeated.

Butch didn't even glance at Bill. He looked at Peggy and said, "So you're from the insurance company that has the two- hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar policy on the Garrison gems."

Peggy pointed toward the strip of adhesive tape on her lips.

"You don't need to have that off to nod," Butch said, his eyes cold.

She remained stiff-necked, defiant. Butch jerked his head, and Slim moved over beside her.

"When I ask questions," Butch said, "I want you to answer them. Slim plays rough, and he doesn't have any more feeling about women than a snake. Now, as I get it, you work for the insurance company, and Bill was making a deal with you to turn back the gems provided you could buy him immunity and pay him maybe thirty or forty thousand bucks. Is that the case?"

She shook her head.

"Soften her up, Slim," Butch said. "She's lying."

Slim tapped the back of her neck with the blackjack. It was only a gentle tap, but it sent a sharp pain shooting through Peggy's brain. She saw a succession of bright flashes in front of her eyes and felt a numbing paralysis that gradually gave place to a dull, throbbing ache.

"I'm waiting for an answer," Butch said.

She took a deep breath, fought back the nauseating headache, then shook her head determinedly.

Slim cocked his wrist and then held it at a sign from Butch, whose slightly puzzled eyes held a glint of admiration. "Dammit," he said, "the babe's got nerve!"

Butch turned to regard the unconscious Bill. Then he said, "When he comes back to join us we'll ask him some questions. I sure had a straight tip that Bill was in on a sellout, and—hell, it has to be true."

"Want me to take the tape off?" Slim asked.

"Not yet," Butch said. "We've got all night. We—"

There was a peculiar sound at the door of the apartment, a rustling noise as though garments were brushing against it.

Butch looked at Slim who moved toward the. door. His right hand streaked for the left lapel of his coat, but the blackjack that was looped around his wrist impeded the motion. The door banged open explosively, hitting against the wall.

Detective Fred Nelson, looking over the sights of a .38, sized up the situation. "Okay, you punks," he said, "that'll be about all."

He looked at Peggy, sitting there with the strip of tape across her lips. "I guess this time you were on the up-and-up," he said. "You got sore and wouldn't tell me where Bill Everett was living, but it happened one of the boys had done a routine check job on him because he is an ex-con.

"Now, you guys line up against that wall, and keep your hands up. You can spend the night in a cell or on a marble slab, and it don't make a damn bit of difference to me which it is."

Peggy sat in Detective Fred Nelson's office. Police Captain Farwell, whose eyes made no attempt to conceal respectful admiration, sat at one end of the big table. Don Kimberly sat at the other end. Nelson asked the questions.

Peggy felt like a tightrope walker, giving them step-by-step conclusions to get Kimberly off the hook of the murder charge. But she was faced with the necessity of glossing over certain clues that she and Kimberly had suppressed and of minimizing the clues Nelson had overlooked. There was no use in making Nelson look dumb before his superior.

"A woman," Peggy explained, "naturally notices certain things a man would never see."

"What things?' Nelson asked.

"Well, for instance, a matter of housekeeping."

"Go ahead," the captain said.

"Well," Peggy went on, choosing her words carefully, "you have to put yourself in the position of a murderer in order to understand how a murder is committed."

Captain Farwell glanced at Detective Nelson. "It isn't going to hurt you to listen to this with both ears," he said.

Peggy said, "Let's suppose I wanted to murder Stella Lynn by giving her a drink of poisoned whiskey. I'd have to make certain she drank the whiskey and didn't. So I'd poison my bottle of liquor and then go call on Stella so I could get rid of her liquor.

"Now, Stella might be fresh out of whiskey, or she might have a bottle that was half full or she might have a full bottle. She was going out on a date. She wouldn't want to drink too much, and, of course, I wouldn't want to drink much because I couldn't afford to be drunk."

"So what would you do?" Nelson asked, his eyes still cautious.

"Why," Peggy said, "I'd make it a point to smash her bottle of whiskey so I'd have a good excuse to go out and get another one to take its place. Then I'd want to be sure Stella was the only one who drank out of that new bottle."

"Go ahead," the captain said.

"Well, if you dropped the bottle on the living-room carpet, or on the kitchen floor, which had linoleum, it might not break, and then your murder plan would be out the window. There was only one place you could drop it—on the bathroom tiles.

"A man would have a lot of trouble working out a scheme by which he could take the bottle of liquor Stella had, carry it into the bathroom, and drop it—without the whole business seeming very strange. But a woman could do it easily.

"She'd run in while Stella was dressing. Stella would say to her, 'I'm getting ready to go out on a date, but come in and talk to me anyway,' and the woman would have all the chance in the world to carry the liquor to the bathroom, start to pour a drink, drop the bottle, and say, 'Oh, dear, Stella, I've dropped your whiskey. You go right ahead with your dressing. I'll run down, get another bottle, and then clean up this mess.'

"So the woman went to get the other bottle of whiskey—the bottle that had been poisoned and then resealed. She came back with the package, handed it to Stella, and said, 'Now, Stella, you just go right ahead with your dressing and I'll clean up this mess in the bathroom.'

"So she started picking up the pieces of glass, and Stella took the new bottle of whiskey. Stella being Stella, she simply had to open it, pour herself a good-sized drink, and toss it off."

There was silence for several seconds, then Captain Farwell nodded slowly and again glanced at Nelson.

Nelson said almost defensively, "It's a damned good theory, but where's the proof?"

"The proof," Peggy said, her eyes wide and innocent, "why, there's plenty of proof. I looked carefully at the bathroom floor to see if there weren't little pieces of glass that hadn't been cleaned up. It's awfully hard to clean up glass slivers, you know. Sure enough, there were several little pieces."

Nelson took a deep breath.

"Yes," he said, "we saw them."

"And then, of course, the broken bottle that was out in the trash can in the backyard. You see, the whiskey had to be mopped up, and the murderer's hands were sticky and they left a beautiful set of fingerprints on the broken bottle."

"Where's that bottle?" Captain Farwell asked.

Nelson's eyes shifted.

"Oh, Mr. Nelson has it," Peggy said quickly. "He's got all the evidence, and it occurred to me that if Mr. Nelson would have his men comb the neighborhood thoroughly to see if someone didn't leave a package at a nearby drugstore or restaurant, or some place around there where she could go back and get it, and they could identify that woman— Then, of course, there are the fingerprints."

"Whose fingerprints are they?" Captain Farwell asked Nelson.

Peggy answered the question. "We'll have to let Mr. Nelson finish the detail work before we know for sure, but they have to be those of Mrs. Bushnell.

"You see, we've established that Stella was killed by a woman. We know Bill Everett got Fran to try to arrange a sellout with the insurance company. His only point of contact was Frances, and her point of contact was Stella.

"And Fran was the only one who simply wouldn't have dared to take that butterfly. If she had, Bill would have known she was so jealous of Stella that she used the opportunity to kill Stella instead of peddling the gems to the insurance company.

"She wrote me that anonymous letter telling me Kimberly and Stella were going to meet at the Royal Pheasant, then planted the poison in his darkroom—"

"How did she know I'd suggest a meeting at the Royal Pheasant?" Kimberly asked.

"She knew that was the most natural spot. Stella had told her she'd arrange a meeting, and Fran must have figured you'd say the Royal Pheasant. If you had named some other place, Fran could have tipped me off. But you didn't."

Captain Farwell got to his feet. "Well," he said, "the newspaper boys are out there yelling their heads off, wanting to get in and get some action. I don't care what the details are, just so—" He paused and looked at Peggy, then looked at Don Kimberly. "Just so the department gets the credit for doing the damned fine job that it did.

"And on this murder," Captain Farwell went on, "we're sorry, Kimberly, that we had to take you into custody."

"Oh, think nothing of it," Kimberly said.

Captain Farwell left the room.

Peggy got to her feet. "Well," she said, "we won't be here when you're talking with the newspapermen, Mr. Nelson. You can handle that. I'll get you the broken whiskey bottle with the fingerprints on it. Of course, you understand that E. B. Halsey, president of the company, is very anxious to have a good press for the insurance company ..."

"Sure, sure, I understand," Nelson said, "and we want to thank you folks for your cooperation."

"I take it I'm free to walk out?" Kimberly asked.

Nelson nodded. "Hell, yes. Want me to pull out a red carpet?"

Don Kimberly looked at Peggy Castle as though suddenly seeing her for the first time.

"Come on, glamour puss," he said. "Let's go and let Nelson get his work done. You're too pretty to be mixed up in a sordid crime."

"Oh, how nice!" Peggy exclaimed. "Just wait till I tell my uncle Benedict what you just said!"

Something Like a Pelican

IT WAS approximately two-thirty in the afternoon, and Lester Leith, strolling idly along a backwash in the shopping district, was very frankly interested in a pair of straight-seamed silk stockings—not those which were in the hosiery display of the window to his right, but those which were very animatedly displayed on the legs of a short-skirted young woman some fifty feet in front of him.

In such matters Lester Leith was a connoisseur, but because his interest verged upon the abstract, he made no effort to shorten the distance. Leith liked to stroll and watch the panorama of life streaming past. A few seconds from now his interest might be claimed by a face which showed character, or some passing pedestrian might interest him. At the moment it was a shapely pair of legs.

Half a block away a woman's head protruded from a fourth-floor window. Above the sounds of traffic could be heard her shrill screams.

"Help! Police! POLICE!!"

Almost instantly a dark furry object was thrown from the window. For a half-second it fell as a compact ball then the resistance of the air opened it out into what seemed to be a fur cape. This cape, like the proverbial young man on the flying trapeze, sailed through the air with the greatest of ease, to

m

come to rest finally upon a metallic crosspiece which supported a street sign four stories below.

At his right, Lester Leith heard cynical laughter, and his eyes, seeking the source, encountered the grinning face on one of those cocksure individuals who is never at a loss to explain the significance of anything that has happened.

i

t

"Advertising stunt," the man said, catching Leith's eye. "That's a fur company up there. Just throwing fur capes away. Get it? They've hatched up something which will give 'em a lot of newspaper publicity."

J

IV

■3f».

Leith heard the sound of a police whistle and the pound of authoritative feet as the traffic officer from the corner came down the sidewalk.

For reasons of his own, Leith preferred to avoid contact with police officers who were rushing to the scene of a crime. His methods were far too subtle and delicately balanced to invite risk by blundering into some police dragnet.

"Thanks for the tip," he said to the omniscient stranger. "I was just about to fall for it. As it is, I won't be late for my appointment."

And Leith deliberately turned his back upon the scene of excited confusion.

Lester Leith, slender and debonair in his full-dress evening clothes, stood in the lobby of the theater at the end of the first act and debated whether to wait and see the rest of the show.

ipl. 1 I

The usual opening-night audience of celebrities, sophisticates, and the social upper crust either promenaded around the lobby or formed in little clusters where they engaged in low-voiced conversations.

Many a feminine eye, drifting in the direction of the straight-shouldered, slim-hipped young man, registered ap-proval, but Lester Leith was, for the moment, engrossed in the problem which had been gnawing at the back of his consciousness all evening. Why should a young woman trying on a silver fox cape in a furrier's on the fourth floor of a loft building abruptly toss the cape out of the window, nonchalantly pay

the purchase price in cash, and leave the premises, apparently seeing nothing unusual in the incident?

Melodious chimes announced that the show would resume in exactly two minutes. People began pinching out cigarettes and drifting through the curtained doorways to the rows of seats. Lester Leith still hesitated.

The show, he was forced to admit, was better than average, but his mind simply refused to let the entertainment on the stage exclude from his consideration the mysterious young woman who had so casually tossed a valuable fur cape out of a fourth-story window.

Lester Leith inserted his thumb and forefinger in the pocket of his waistcoat and removed the folded clipping which he had taken from the evening paper. Despite the fact that he knew it almost by heart, he read it once more.

Pedestrians on Beacon Street were startled this afternoon by the screams of a young woman who leaned from a window of the Gilbert Furrier Company in the Cooperative Loft Building four stories above the sidewalk calling for the police. Looking up, they saw a silver fox cape come plummeting toward the sidewalk. The cape spread out, caught the breeze, and finally fell across a rod supporting the sign of the Nelson Optical Company, where it lodged just out of reach of the clutching fingers of dozens of eager feminine shoppers. The screaming woman was later identified as Miss Fanny Gillmeyer, 321 East Grove Street, an employee of the furrier company.

Officer James C. Haggerty, on duty at the intersection, left his post to rush with drawn revolver into the loft building, commandeering an elevator which rushed him up to the fourth floor. As the officer came running down the corridor, he was greeted by F. G. Gilbert, head of the Gilbert Furrier Company, who explained that the screamed alarm had been a mistake.

Officer Haggerty insisted upon an investigation which disclosed that a young woman customer, whose name the company refused to divulge, had been trying on silver fox capes. Abruptly, she had said, "I'll take this one," wadded it into a roll, and tossed it out of the window. Miss Gillmeyer, the clerk who had been making the sale, thinking that she was encountering a new form of shoplifting, promptly proceeded to shout for police.

By the time Mr. Gilbert, the proprietor, appeared upon the scene, the customer was quite calmly counting out bills to the amount of the purchase price. She oflered no explanation as to why she had thrown the cape out of the window, and quite casually left instructions covering the delivery of the cape when it was recovered. During the confusion which ensued just prior to the arrival of Officer Haggerty, the young woman, who was described as a dazzlingly beautiful blonde some twenty-five years of age, left the building.

Officer Haggerty was inclined to believe the young woman was an actress who was intent upon getting publicity. If this was true, her desire was foiled by the refusal of the furrier company to divulge her name and address. The cape was subsequently retrieved and, after being cleaned, presumably delivered by the Gilbert Furrier Company to the eccentric purchaser.

The dimming lights announced that the second act of the play was about to start. Lester Leith, returning the clipping to his pocket, reached a decision and turned toward the street. A waiting taxi took him to the Cooperative Loft Building on Beacon Street.

There was nothing about the appearance of the Cooperative Loft Building which offered a clue to the strange behavior of the purchaser of the fur cape. The Gilbert Furrier Company occupied the entire fourth floor. The window from which the fur cape had been thrown was evidently the one directly over the sign of the Nelson Optical Company.

Leith noticed, on the opposite side of the street, two men who were evidently waiting for some event which they felt would take place in the not too distant future.

The manner in which they "loafed" on opposite sides of the entrance of the Rust Commercial Building, directly across the street from the Cooperative Loft Building—the manner in which they completely ignored each other, yet managed to turn their heads in unison whenever the sound of a clanging elevator door came from the lobby of the office building—indicated a certain common purpose. Moreover, whenever one of the belated office workers left the building, these men con- verged upon the doorway, only to move equally away again as soon as they got a good look.

Leith got back in his cab and said to the driver, "We'll wait

here."

The cabbie smiled knowingly. "Want the radio on?" he asked.

Leith said, "No, thanks," and settled back to a cigarette and a period of watchful waiting which was terminated after about twenty minutes when a slim, youthful woman in a blue skirt and jacket, wearing a rakish, tight-fitting hat perched at an angle over her right ear, walked out from the elevators across the lobby to the entrance, her trim, smooth-swinging legs carrying her at a rapid pace.

The two watchers swung once more toward the door. This time they didn't veer apart. As the young woman stepped out, each man possessed himself of an elbow. They hurried her across the sidewalk into a car which had mysteriously appeared from nowhere and slid to a quick stop just in time for the young woman to be catapulted into the interior.

Lester Leith pinched out his cigarette and said to the cabbie, "We'll follow that car."

The cab-driver made a quick U-turn which placed him behind his quarry, and a red traffic signal enabled him to slide up into an advantageous position.

"No rough stuff?" he asked dubiously.

"Certainly not," Leith said. "Just a matter of curiosity."

The cab-driver studied the license plate of the car ahead. "It ain't the law, is it?"

Leith said, "That is precisely what I am endeavoring to ascertain at the moment."

The cab-driver seemed not too enthusiastic, but he competently followed the other machine until it came to a stop in front of a downtown office building. His expert eye appraised the trio who emerged. "They're G-men," he said.

"I doubt it," Lester Leith commented. "The obviousness of their methods, their desire for mutual support, and their com- plete lack of subtlety are more indicative of police officers of the old school. My personal opinion is they're operatives from a private detective agency."

The cab-driver looked at him with sudden respect. "Say," he said, "I bet you're a G-man yourself."

"With whom," Lester Leith asked, "did you bet?"

The cab-driver grinned. "Myself."

Leith said solemnly, "That's a break for you. You can't lose."

Edward H. Beaver served Lester Leith in the capacity of valet, but his obsequious loyalty was a carefully assumed mask covering his true character.

For some time police had suspected Lester Leith of being a unique super-detective—a man whose keen mind unraveled tangled threads in the skein of crime. But all those crimes to which Lester Leith devoted his attention had one peculiar and uniform denouement. When the police, following a sometimes devious but always accurate trail blazed for them by Leith's activities, reached their objectives, they invariably found a somewhat dazed criminal completely stripped of his ill-gotten gains.

It was because of this the police had "planted" an undercover man to act as Leith's valet. Yet, much as the police wanted to catch Leith red-handed, so far the spy's activities had been no more productive of results than the efforts of those committees selected from an audience to supervise a stage magician in his feats of legerdemain.

The spy was waiting up when Leith fitted his latchkey to the door of the penthouse apartment.

"Good evening, sir."

"What, Scuttle, waiting up?"

"Yes, sir. I thought perhaps you'd like a Scotch and soda, sir. I have the things all ready. Your coat? Your hat? Your stick? Your gloves? Yes, sir. Now, do you wish to put on your dressing gown and house slippers?"

Leith said, "No. I think I'll remain dressed for a while, Scuttle. You might bring me the Scotch and soda."

Leith stretched out on the chaise longue and thoughtfully sipped the drink which the spy had placed at his elbow, while Beaver hovered around solicitously.

"Scuttle," Leith said at length, "you make it a point to read the crime news, I believe?"

The spy coughed apologetically. "You'll pardon me for saying so, but ever since you- outlined your theory that the newspaper accounts frequently contain some significant fact which points to the criminal, I've made it a habit to read the crime news. Sort of a mental game I play with myself."

Lester Leith waited until he had taken two more leisurely sips from his glass before saying. "A fascinating pastime, isn't it, Scuttle?"

"Yes, sir."

"But make certain that your solutions are always merely academic—that you keep them only in your mind. You know how Sergeant Ackley is, Scuttle—overzealous, unreasonable— and he has that inherent suspicion which is the unfailing indication of the prejudiced mind."

Leith yawned and patted back the yawn with polite fingers. "Scuttle, in your crime reading, have you perhaps run across an account of some crime which took place in the Rust Commercial Building?"

"The Rust Commercial Building? No, sir, I can't say that I have."

Leith said, "I notice, Scuttle, that on the sixth floor of the Rust Commercial Building is a whole string of offices occupied by the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company, more generally referred to, I believe, as Pidico. Have you heard of any crime which has been committed there?"

"No, sir, I haven't."

Leith stretched, yawned, and said, "Most annoying, Scuttle."

"What is, may I ask?"

"To depend upon the newspapers for information—to know that something in which you are interested has happened and that it will be twelve to twenty-four hours before you can read about it."

Beaver kept his surprise concealed behind a rigidly immobile poker countenance. His eyes held burning curiosity, but his manner was merely deferential as he said, "Is there anything that I could do to help you, sir?"

Lester Leith gave frowning consideration to the spy's overtures. "Scuttle, could I trust you?"

"With your very life, sir."

"All right, Scuttle, I'll give you an assignment—a very confidential one. ... In the Channing Commercial Building there's a private detective agency. I didn't bother to look it up. Some men took a young woman there about ten o'clock tonight. They questioned her. Perhaps they turned her loose, perhaps not. If my reasoning is correct, she was an employee of the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company. Find out if that is the case. If so, report to me her name and address. If the facts aren't as I've outlined them, then I'm not interested in the matter at all."

"Yes, sir. And if it turns out you're right, sir, may I ask the nature and extent of your interest?"

Leith replied, "Simply to put my mind at ease by making a logical explanation of an event which has puzzled me."

"May I ask what the event was?"

"The throwing of a silver fox cape out of a four-story window."

The spy's eyes glittered. "Oh, yes, sir. I read about that in the paper."

"Indeed, Scuttle? Did you have any theories about it?"

"Yes, sir. I gave that matter quite a bit of thought and reached a very satisfactory conclusion. I said to myself—if you won't think it's presumptuous, sir—I'll pretend that I'm Lester Leith reading that newspaper clipping and try to find in it the significant clue which the police have overlooked."

"And what did you conclude?"

"That the woman was merely a cog in a machine, a part of a very clever scheme."

"Scuttle, you amaze me!"

"Yes, sir. I decided that her sole function was to distract the attention of everyone in the place while a clever confederate worked a foolproof scheme."

"What was the scheme, Scuttle?"

"Switching price tags, sir."

"Can you give me a few more details?"

"Yes, sir. Some coats are second-grade or imitation and valued at seventy-five to a hundred dollars. Others are the real thing and valued at from twelve hundred to twenty-five hundred. Obviously, a person who could switch price tags would be able to take advantage of the situation and for a relatively small amount get a high-priced coat."

"Marvelous, Scuttle!" Lester Leith said. "You're doing splendidly."

"Thank you, sir. And do you think that's what happened?"

"Certainly not, but you're improving, Scuttle."

"You mean you don't think that happened?"

"No, Scuttle."

"But it's an entirely logical explanation," the valet insisted.

Leith yawned again. "That's why I don't think it happened, Scuttle, and now I think I'll go to bed. Don't call me before nine in the morning."

Incandescent lights blazed down on the cigarette-charred desk of Sergeant Ackley. The air in the building held that peculiar stench which comes to jails, police headquarters, and other places which are inhabited twenty-four hours a day. Beaver sat across the desk from Sergeant Ackley and said, "I just called on the off chance you hadn't gone to bed."

Ackley yawned, ran his fingers through his hair, and said, "That's all right, Beaver. I'd get up in the middle of the night to catch this crook. You say you need this information before nine o'clock in the morning?"

"That's right."

Ackley pressed a button and, when an officer appeared, said, "Find out what detective agency is in the Channing Commercial Building and get the guy in charge on the line."

When the officer had left the room, Ackley rubbed his hand around the back of his neck, yawned, then fished in his waistcoat pocket for a cigar. "And you think it's connected up with this goofy shoplifting stunt at the Gilbert place?"

"It seems to be," Beaver said.

Sergeant Ackley lit his cigar, puffed thoughtfully for a few moments, then shook his head emphatically and said, "Nope, Beaver. That's a blind. That business at the furrier company was a price-tag switch, just the way you doped it out. My guess is Gilbert will be squawking his head off tomorrow that someone walked out with a two-thousand-dollar mink coat by making the payoff for a seventy-five-dollar rabbit imitation."

Beaver nodded his head. "That was what I thought. Leith thinks different."

Sergeant Acklev said, "That's just the line of hooey he's giving you to keep you from knowing what he really has in mind."

"He's fallen for me this time, Sergeant. He's really going to take me into his confidence."

Sergeant Ackley rolled the cigar around to the other corner of his mouth. "Nope," he said, "he's playing you for a sucker, Beaver. That business about the silver fox cape is proof that he's stringing you along. I'll bet there wasn't anything that happened over in the Instrument—"

He broke off as the phone rang. He scooped up the receiver and said out of the corner of his mouth, "Hello—Sergeant Ackley talking."

There was a moment's silence in the room, then Ackley pulled the cigar out of his mouth and said, in a voice suddenly crisp with authority, "Oh, this is the Planetary International Detective Service in the Channing Commercial Building, is it? And you're in charge? Okay. This is Sergeant Ackley at headquarters. Now get this, and get it straight because I don't want any fumbling. Have you got a client, the Precision Instrument

Designing and Installation Company? Oh, you have, eh? I see. Now, what kind of work are you doing right now for that company? I don't care whether it's confidential or not! This is police headquarters. We're working on a case, and we think that angle enters into it. . . . Never mind how we knew about it. We're asking for information. . . . No, you aren't going to stall along while you call up your client. I'm asking for information, and I want it. We let you guys get by with a lot of stuff, but right now . . . Well, that's better. Okay, go ahead and shoot."

There was almost three minutes of complete silence while Sergeant Ackley scowled at the telephone transmitter, listening to the voice which poured words through the receiver into his attentive left ear. Then he said, "How do you know this dame is the one? ... I see. . . . Where is she now? . . . All right, you guys should have reported that in the first place. That's a crime. That's burglary. . . . Sure, they don't want any notoriety, but they don't need to have it. We can keep things under cover the same as anyone else. Do you eggs up there think you can do better work than the police department? . . . Well, that's better. Tell him the truth. Tell him headquarters called up about it and demanded a report. Tell him we're on our toes enough so we know about crimes even when the victims try to keep 'em secret, and you can tell him that Sergeant.Ackley is working on the case personally. Tell him I've made substantial progress toward a solution. In the meantime, you eggs keep us posted, see? . . . That's right, Sergeant Ackley."

Ackley banged down the receiver and then grinned across the desk at the undercover man. "The chiefs gonna get a kick out of that," he said. "They were trying to keep it secret. That bird up at the detective agency nearly fainted, wonderin' how we knew about it."

"How we knew about what?" Beaver asked.

Ackley said, "An inventor by the name of Nicholas Hodge worked out an improved submarine detector and locator. He made a rough mode! which seemed to do the work. He took it up with Washington and the thing got snowed under with red tape. Then he made a contact with one of the rear admirals who arranged for a definite test but insisted that a completely finished instrument be installed for the test, one that looked good enough to impress the big shots in the Navy. The Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company was picked for the job.

"Naturally, the thing was carried out in great secrecy. Jason Bellview, the president of the company, and his confidential secretary, a girl by the name of Bernice Lamen, were the only ones who knew what it was all about and where the master blueprints were kept. Those offices of the instrument company are just the designing offices—the factory is about a mile out of town. Bellview's idea was that he'd split the thing up into parts, have workmen make the separate parts, and then, at the last minute, he, using a pair of trusted assistants, would assemble them himself."

"And something happened to the blueprints?" Beaver asked.

"Vanished into thin air."

"This detective agency is working on it?"

"That's right. They're under contract to take care of all the Instrument Company's business. Bellview called them as soon as he knew what had happened. They suspected Bernice Lamen, laid some sort of a trap for her, and she walked into it. They nabbed her and are giving her a third degree and getting no place with it."

"So we take over?" Beaver grinned.

Sergeant Ackley grinned also. "We take over," he said, "but not until old Jason Bellview comes crawling in on his belly and begs us to. He was afraid of the publicity. If it ever gets out that those blueprints aren't in his office, or if he can't guarantee that while they were out of his possession no one made copies of them, the Precision Instrument Company is in one sweet mess."

Abruptly the grin left Beaver's face. He frowned thoughtfully.

"Well," Ackley asked, "what is it?"

"How the devil did Lester Leith know all about this?"

Ackley's eyes reflected the mental jolt this question gave him.

Beaver said, "It was something that had to do with pitching that silver fox cape out of that window."

"Nonsense, Beaver. That's just a blind he's using."

Beaver said suddenly, "Look here, Sergeant, the Instrument Company's offices are right across the street from the fur company. Do you suppose you could see into the—"

Sergeant Ackley shook his head authoritatively. "The Instrument Company is on the sixth floor. The furrier's on the fourth."

Beaver said doggedly, "Well, the furrier's in a loft building, and-the fourth floor of that building might be on a level with the sixth floor of the office building."

Sergeant Ackley's eyebrows leveled. "You may have something there," he admitted. Then he added hastily, "But I doubt it."

Lester Leith, over a breakfast of coffee, toast, and crisp bacon, listened to the valet's report.

"Very interesting, Scuttle, and I should say quite complete. How did you get your facts?"

The spy coughed. "A young woman in whom I'm interested is keeping company with a police detective," he said.

"Oh, that's right. You've mentioned that before. I'm not certain that I approve of the ethical aspects of the situation, Scuttle, but the relationship seems to have been signally productive of information."

"Yes, sir."

"And you're quite certain that Jason Bellview consulted the police?"

"Yes, sir. After midnight."

"Let's run over the story once more, Scuttle."

"Yes, sir. Bellview placed the master blueprints in his vault. The big door is kept open during the day but is closed and

locked at night. Nicholas Hodge, the inventor of the device, and Bellview had just finished a preliminary conference. The blueprints had been placed in the vault. Bellview had an important matter to attend to and excused himself for a few moments, leaving Hodge waiting in an office which adjoined his private office. Bernice Lamen, Bellview's secretary, had opened and sorted the early afternoon mail in her own office and was just bringing it to Mr. Bellview's private office—so she said. She had just entered the office when she heard the screaming from across the street. Naturally, many of the employees ran to the windows to look out. Bernice Lamen says she heard the door slam in the private office—the exit door— as though someone had hurriedly run out. She assumed at the moment it was Mr. Bellview. That's what she says."

"It wasn't Bellview?"

"No, sir. Mr. Bellview says he was in another part of the building. Whoever it was got the plans out of the vault. He seemed to know just where to go for them."

"Any chance someone entered the offices from the outside?"

"No, sir. Frank Packerson, who has charge of the firm's house organ, had been trapshooting over the weekend. He'd brought his gun to the office and, as soon as he heard the commotion across the street, he grabbed the gun, loaded it, and jumped out into the corridor. Hodge, the inventor, was the only man who appeared who wasn't connected with the company. And, of course, Hodge would hardly steal his own blueprints."

Lester Leith frowned thoughtfully. "How about Bernice Lamen?"

"The detectives watched the building last night. Miss Lamen returned to the offices. She said she was behind in her work. The detectives regarded that as being highly suspicious, so they nabbed her. You see, sir, a guard was instantly placed at the door to see that no one took the blueprints out. They must still be concealed in the offices. The thief removed them from the safe and hid them."

Leith said, "The detectives searched Miss Lamen and found nothing?"

"No, sir."

Leith smiled.

"You're planning to do something about it, sir?" Beaver asked.

Leith raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Do something?"

"Well, sir, that is, I was wondering if you had any more theories you wanted to check."

"I think not, Scuttle. I find myself irritated by the stupidity with which the police have handled the entire matter, but there's no call for me to do anything. My interest in these matters, Scuttle, is purely abstract—merely an academic speculation."

The woman who ran the theatrical employment agency looked up at Lester Leith. At first her smile was merely a pro-fessional blandishment, but as her eyes took in the well-knit figure, the keen, alert eyes, the straight nose and smiling lips, her manner suddenly became more personal.

"Good morning," she said, in a tone which had far more cordiality than was customarily given to unknown visitors.

Lester Leith smiled down at her. "I would like to write stories," he said.

The smile struggled against a frown and lost. "There's absolutely no opening for writers," she said. "We don't handle literary stuff ourselves, but unless you've had some experience—"

"Feature writing," Lester Leith went on, "writing from an unusual angle—the human interest behind the news."

The frown faded somewhat. "It sounds quite interesting, but I'm afraid we couldn't—"

"Oh," Leith interposed airily, "it's just a hobby. I don't care to make any money out of it, and I'm not asking you to place my work."

"What did you want then?" "An actress who would not be adverse to publicity."

The woman at the desk said, "None of them are adverse to publicity."

"I want an actress," Leith said, "who has what it takes, a trouper, a—"

"You won't find those anymore," the woman interrupted wearily. "Young people these days think only in terms of Hollywood. They regard the stage only as a springboard to help them jump into the movies."

Lester Leith said, "My actress doesn't necessarily need to be youthful. I want someone who has character and that something which is known as being a good sport."

She regarded him somewhat quizzically. "There's one waiting in the outer office," she said, "who has done everything from stock companies to vaudeville. She really has talent, but —well, she isn't young any more."

"How old?" Leith asked.

She smiled. "She says thirty and looks thirty-three. I would say she was around forty. I have to admire her for the way she keeps up her courage."

"What's her name?"

"Winnie Gail."

"Would she be interested in doing a job for me—as a model?"

"I don't think so. She wants to be an actress or nothing, but you can talk with her."

Yith said, "Let's get her in."

Winnie Gail proved to be a woman who was impatient of subterfuges and wanted to know exactly where she stood. She interrupted Lester Leith's preliminary talk with a curt question. "Have you ever done any writing?"

"No," Lester Leith said. "This is a new venture."

"Listen, you haven't the chance of the proverbial snowball," she said impatiently.

"Tut, tut. I was afraid of that. Don't go, Miss Gail."

"Why not?"

"Fortunately, I am not dependent on my writing as a source of income."

"Well, I'm dependent on my time as a source of income, and I haven't any to waste."

Leith said, "I want you to pose for photographs and a story with a human interest slant. The compensation would be two hundred and fifty dollars for two hours' work—plus, of course, a fur coat."

"Plus a what?"

"A fur coat—a silver fox cape."

Winnie Gail abruptly sat down. "Now listen," she said, "is this on the up-and-up?"

Leith nodded.

"You're not wrapping a proposition in a cellophane pack- age?"

He shook his head.

X'I get this dough in cash?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Now."

"What do I have to do?"

"Throw a fur cape out of a window, and then tell me exactly how you felt when you did it."

Winnie Gail glanced at the startled woman behind the desk, then looked up at Lester Leith. "You're crazy," she said. "But if you have two hundred and fifty dollars in cash on you, I'm with you."

Lester Leith opened his wallet and counted out five fifty- dollar bills. As the currency fluttered to the desk of the woman who ran the theatrical employment agency, Winnie Gail said softly, "I haven't seen confetti like that since I played Mother Was a Lady in the old Pelman House."

F. G. Gilbert, head of the Gilbert Furrier Company, regarded Lester Leith with cold, calculating eyes.

"So you see," Leith explained affably, indicating the pho- tographer who stood on his left, a big studio-type camera in a carrying case and a tripod over his shoulder, "I've brought my photographer to make a series of pictures, and"—indicating Winnie Gail, who wore her made-over, somewhat shabby clothes with an air of distinction—"I've brought my own customer. I will, of course, buy the silver fox cape at retail prices." Gilbert shook his head.

"Of course," Lester Leith went on affably, "Miss Gail is an actress. Just between you and me, she expects to get considerable publicity out of this, and, as far as you're concerned—well, having the Gilbert Furrier Company mentioned prominently in connection with news and magazine stories shouldn't do you any harm."

Gilbert frowned through his glasses. "You aren't a newspaper reporter?" "No."

"A press agent?"

"Well, in a way. I have Miss Gail's publicity at heart." Gilbert's appraisal of Miss Gail spoke volumes. "I'm not certain this store desires that sort of publicity."

Leith shrugged his shoulders. "As you wish," he said. "Of course, there's the purchase of a silver fox cape."

Gilbert said, "Just a minute. I'll have to confer with my advertising manager. I'll be right back."

He stepped into his private office and called police headquarters. "A man by the name of Lester Leith," he said, "claims to be a feature writer. He's here with an actress who wants to pitch another silver fox cape out of the window and, at the same time, have Miss Fanny Gillmeyer, who was the clerk who screamed for the police yesterday, do the same thing all over again today. Is there any objection to my kicking him downstairs?"

The desk sergeant said, "Hold the phone. I'll put you in touch with Sergeant Ackley."

A moment later Sergeant Ackley came on the wire, and Gilbert explained the matter in detail.

Ackley's voice was eager. "Any objections? Listen, don't let him change his mind. Stall him along for fifteen minutes. That's all I want—fifteen minutes."

"And it's okay after that?" Gilbert asked dubiously.

"Is it okay!" Sergeant Ackley exclaimed. "You listen to me. If you let this opportunity slip through your fingers, I'll—I'll— I'll close your joint up for handling stolen goods!"

Gilbert returned to the outer office. "Okay," he said, "but if you want Miss Gillmeyer to wait on you personally, it'll take a few minutes, because she's busy with another customer. However, I suppose you'll want to set up your cameras and do a little rehearsing?"

Lester Leith took charge of operations with that meticulous attention to detail which characterizes the highest-priced directors in the picture business.

"You see," Leith explained, "yesterday the fox cape hit on the support of a sign and didn't get to the sidewalk, but that was only because an element of chance entered into the situation. Today undoubtedly the cape will reach the sidewalk. Now, then, what will happen? Will someone pick it up and hurry away with it, or will the person who finds it be honest and return it? In any event, we want a whole series of action photographs."

The photographer set up the big studio camera, placed a speed graphic on the floor where it would be within easy reach. He also placed another speed camera on a smaller tripod. "Now listen," he said to Leith, "when the action starts, I've got to work fast. Be sure people keep out of my way."

Lester Leith nodded.

Gilbert looked at his watch, then motioned to the young woman who was standing nearby. "All right, Miss Gillmeyer," he said, "come on over here. You can go ahead any time now," he said to Lester Leith.

But nearly ten minutes elapsed before Leith indicated that he was ready.

Then abruptly he said, "All right, go ahead."

W innie Gail walked over to the window, hesitated a moment, then tossed out a silver fox cape. Fanny Gillmeyer thrust her head out of the window and screamed for police. Pedestrians on the street below stared up in frozen-faced curiosity. Across the street the office workers in the Rust Commercial Building paused in whatever they were doing to stare. The photographer jumped from one camera to the other, then snatched up the speed graphic, leaned out of the window, and started shooting a series of pictures. . . .

Sergeant Ackley sat in conference with Captain Carmichael at police headquarters. A pile of photographs was on the desk.

"He doesn't know you've got these pictures?" Carmichael asked.

Sergeant Ackley shook his head. "I put the screws on the photographer."

Captain Carmichael picked up the photographs and studied them thoughtfully. He opened a drawer in his desk, took out a magnifying glass, and moved it over one of the pictures. "Interesting," he said.

"You got something?" Sergeant Ackley inquired eagerly, walking around to peer over Captain Carmichael's shoulder.

The police captain tapped a portion of the photograph. "Notice," he said, "you can actually identify the people who are at the windows of the Precision Instrument offices. You can even see what's going on back in the offices themselves. There's a woman standing in front of the vault door."

"That's our own plant," Sergeant Ackely said. "Believe me, she's on the job. As soon as she heard the alarm, she didn't even look to see what it was. She just beat it for the safe and stood there keeping guard. That's Ann Sherman, and they don't slip anything over on her!"

Captain Carmichael rubbed his hand thoughtfully over the top of his head. "I wonder," he said musingly, "if that spoiled things for Leith."

"How do you mean?"

"He hadn't counted on the woman who took Bernice La- men's place being from headquarters. Perhaps he was hoping the vault would be unguarded, just as it was for a few moments yesterday."

"But the blueprints have already been swiped," Sergeant Ackley said. "What good would it do to give somebody the opportunity to steal them again?"

Captain Carmichael pursed his lips, puffed out his cheeks, and blew thoughtfully. Slowly his eyebrows crept together in a portentous scowl. "Sergeant," he said, "that's exactly what he wanted, and Ann Sherman's being on the job kept him from getting results. Hang it, we should have thought of that!

"Don't you see? Whoever stole those blueprints hasn't been able to get them out of the building. They are still there, hidden somewhere. The thief has memorized them enough to know the real secret of the device. Now he'd like to get them back into the vault."

"I don't see why."

Captain Carmichael said patiently, "Because every inch of those offices was searched by the police immediately after Jason Bellview got in touch with you. We didn't get to first base. Tell Jason Bellview to apologize to Bernice Lamen and get her back on the job, then give Lester Leith a free hand."

"What do you mean by a free hand?"

"Exactly what I said. Have you ever seen the Chinese method of catching fish, Sergeant?"

The exasperated Sergeant Ackley said sarcastically, "That's another thing I've overlooked in connection with the case, and I've completely overlooked inspecting the hairs on the head of the last Egyptian mummy through a microscope."

Captain Carmichael flushed. "Don't be so irritable," he growled, "and so blamed ignorant. I was going to tell you that the oriental method of catching fish is to put a rope around the neck of the fish-eating bird, so he can't swallow. The bird drops into the sea and grabs half a dozen fish. He can't swallow 'em, so he comes back to the surface, and the wily Chinese has half a dozen nice live fish, caught without any effort on his part."

Sergeant Ackley's eyes glistened. "What's the name of that bird?" he asked.

Captain Carmichael frowned. "I think they call it a cormorant."

Sergeant Ackley said, "Cripes, I'd like to have one of those birds to take up to the lake where I spend my summer vacation! There were fish there that just wouldn't bite—"

"We're talking about blueprints," Captain Carmichael interrupted. "Lester Leith is going to be our cormorant. He'll get the swag for us and then have to disgorge it."

"What the heck does a cormorant look like?" Sergeant Ackley asked.

Captain Carmichael said vaguely, "He's something like a pelican."

Sergeant Ackley pushed back his chair. "Well, I get the idea all right. We'll make this guy Leith something like a pelican."

Captain Carmichael gave one last warning. "Be absolutely certain," he said, "that you keep a rope tied around his neck. "That's the most important thing in the way the Chinese fish. Otherwise the birds would swallow everything they get."

Sergeant Ackley said confidently, "Leave it to me, Captain," and left the room. He was back, however, within a few seconds. "Say, Captain, don't think I'm cuckoo, but where could a man buy one of those birds that are like a pelican?"

Captain Carmichael fixed him with a stern eye. "In China," he said.

Lester Leith pressed the button of Apartment 7-B. The card opposite the button bore the names of two persons Bernice Lamen, who was the confidential secretary of Jason Bellview, and Millicent Foster.

After a moment the buzzer sounded, and Lester Leith walked up two flights of stairs to the apartment he wanted. The young woman who answered his knock was cool, collected, and very much on her guard. "What do you want?" she asked.

"I'd like to talk with Miss Bernice Lamen."

"Miss Lamen is not at home."

Lester Leith's eyes softened into twinkling appraisal of the stern young woman on the threshold. "You," he asked, "are Miss Foster?"

"Yes."

"Perhaps I can talk with you."

For a moment she studied him, then relaxed somewhat the severity of her manner and repeated, "What do you want?"

"I take it, because you're sharing an apartment with Miss Lamen, that your relationship is a friendly one?"

"Yes. We're friends—have been for years."

Leith said, "I'm a writer."

There was alarm in her voice. "A newspaperman?"

"No, no! I'm just a beginner. It's something of a hobby with me."

"I see," she said dubiously.

Leith said affably, "Your friend has been placed in a most unsatisfactory position."

"In what way?"

"If I were she, I'd want to prove myself innocent."

"How?"

Leith's voice showed surprise. "Why, by seeing that the guilty person was trapped, of course."

For a long moment the woman in the doorway hesitated, then her face softened in a smile. "Oh, come on in," she said impulsively. "I'm Bernice Lamen. This is Millicent over here by the window. Miss Foster, this is Mr.— What did you say your name was?"

"Leith. Lester Leith."

"Well, come on in and sit down."

As Leith settled himself in the chair she had indicated, she sized up the expensive tailor-made suit he was wearing and said, "You don't look like a poor writer."

"I'm not," Leith said. "I'm a good writer."

Millicent said hastily, "Bernice didn't mean—"

Bernice interrupted, "Skip it. He's kidding." She smiled at Lester Leith. "You don't look like any sort of a writer, good, bad, or indifferent. What's your game?"

"To find out who stole those blueprints."

Millicent said, "I understand someone threw another fur out of the window this afternoon."

"I did," Leith announced calmly.

"You did!" Bernice exclaimed.

Leith smiled deprecatingly. "It was, of course, the obvious thing to do."

Bernice glanced at Millicent, then leaned forward to regard Lester Leith from under level brows. "Now, let's get this straight. You mean you threw a fur cape out of the window again this afternoon?"

"Oh, I didn't do it myself," Leith said. "I engaged a young woman to do it, a very talented actress. You see, I wanted to have her give me an exclusive interview, telling me how it felt to throw an expensive fur cape out a four-story window."

Again the young women exchanged glances. Bernice Lamen, her tone perceptibly cooler, said, "Well, I'm afraid I can't do anything to help you."

Leith opened the small briefcase he was carrying, took out some photographs, and said, "These are a series of photographs which we took, showing the entire episode. Most interesting, don't you think?"

After a moment's hesitation, the two young women moved closer to study the photographs. Leith took a magnifying glass from his pocket and said, "You can see a great many details here. Look at this picture of the crowd leaning out of the window over at the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company. I daresay you can recognize many of your fellow workers, Miss Lamen?"

"I should say I can, even without the glass. Why, there's—"

Leith interrupted her to indicate one of the windows with the point of his lead pencil. "This," he asked, "is the window of Mr. Bellview's private office?"

"Yes."

"I notice what appears to be the back of a young woman standing right here. Would that be near the vault?"

"Yes. The vault door is right there."

"This man, I take it, is Jason Bellview?"

"Yes."

Lester Leith said, "Someone over here is holding a broomstick."

She looked at the photograph, then burst out laughing, "That's not a broomstick. It's a gun."

"A rifle?" Leith asked.

"No," she said, smiling, "a shotgun. The man who's trying to play hero is Frank Packerson, the editor of our house organ, the Pidico News. He's a trapshooting enthusiast. He'd been out in the country doing some shooting over the weekend. He got back to town too late Monday morning to go to his apartment, so he brought his gun up to the office and left it there, as he does occasionally."

"I see," Lester Leith said, "and he's on the lookout for burglars in this picture, I suppose?"

"I guess so. He really did a decent job yesterday. He grabbed his shotgun and dashed out into the corridor as soon as he heard the screaming for police across the street. He says no one except the inventor and, a few moments later, Mr. Bellview appeared in the corridor. That shows pretty conclusively that the taking of the blueprints was an inside job and that—that—"

"Go on," Leith said.

"That they weren't taken out as far as the corridor. They're concealed somewhere in the offices."

"How many offices would be available as places of concealment?"

She said, "I've been thinking that over. There is a whole string of them. They all have communicating doors, and then there's the corridor which runs the whole length of the offices. But the point is, Mr. Leith, that no one went along the corri- dor and no one crossed the corridor. Packerson is positive on that point. He'd have shot in a minute if he'd seen anything that was out of the way—such as someone running away."

"That would mean, then, that the blueprints must have been hidden somewhere in the string of offices which are next to the windows that open on the street?" Leith asked.

"Yes."

Leith said, indicating the photograph with a sweeping gesture of his hand, "Somewhere in the area which is covered in this photograph."

"That's right."

Leith tapped a spot on the photograph with the point of a lead pencil. "Who's this?"

She frowned and said, "Let me see that glass. It's a little hazy."

Leith gave her the magnifying glass.

"Oh, yes. That's Tarver Slade. He's a man who showed up four or five days ago to go over our books."

"An auditor?" Leith asked.

"Oh, no. Just one of those state tax men who come in at intervals for a checkup. No one pays very much attention to them. They're terrible pests, want you to stop everything to explain little simple points. If we took them seriously, we'd never get any work done. Nowadays we just give them an office and let them alone."

Lester Leith said, "This man seems to be putting on an overcoat."

"Yes. I've noticed that if the weather's at all cold, he wears his overcoat whenever he goes out. I guess he has rheumatism. At times he walks with a pronounced iimp, then again he seems ail right."

Lester Leith took out a notebook and made a cryptic entry. "Just jotting down the names of these people," he explained. "Now, can you give me a few more names from the photographs?"

Taking Leith's pencil, Bernice Lamen checked off the various persons whose faces appeared in the window. Only some four or five whose heads were bent down, looking at the sidewalk, she couldn't recognize.

Lester Leith slipped the enlarged photographs back into his breifcase. "Thank you very much, Miss Lamen. I think I have a swell angle for writing my article, 'How It Feels to Throw a Fur Cape Out of the Window.' "

"Mr. Leith," Millie Foster said, "please be frank with us. What are you after?"

"Why, I'm after a human-interest story."

"Surely you don't expect us to believe that a person would go to all this expense to get material for a story he wasn't even sure of selling?"

Leith smiled.

Bernice Lamen said, "It's a story that would interest me. I think the photos are swell."

"Aren't they!" Leith said enthusiastically. "They should be. They cost seventy-five dollars."

Millicent said, "Good night—should I say, Santa Claus?"

Leith paused with his hand on the knob. "You might look in your stocking," he said, and quietly left the apartment.

Lester Leith opened the door of the penthouse apartment and said, "Right this way, men."

The startled undercover man looked up to see half a dozen men who were probably taxi drivers carrying a miscellaneous assortment which included a desk, a swivel chair, a typewriter, a filing cabinet, a wastebasket, and a cabinet for holding stationery.

"Scuttle," Lester Leith said, "kindly move the chair out of that corner. All right, boys, just put the stuff in there—the desk right in the corner, the typewriter on the desk, the wastebasket to the side of the desk, and the swivel chair, of course, right by the desk."

The valet stared at the strange procession which trooped its way across the thick carpets of the penthouse apartment. When they had gone, he moved about, dusting the furniture.

"Are you employing a secretary?" he asked.

Lester Leith regarded him reproachfully. "Scuttle, I am going to work."

"To work?"

"Yes. I am going to write stories which will interpret the hidden significance of things. I am going to fight my way to the top."

"Yes, sir. A novel perhaps, sir?"

"Not fiction, Scuttle. I am going to dramatize incidents. For instance, Scuttle, how would it feel to throw three hundred and fifty dollars out of a window?"

"I'm sure I don't know, sir."

"But you'd be interested in finding out, wouldn't you?"

"Well, sir—ahem—of course, if you say so, sir. Yes, sir."

"That's exactly it," Leith said. "Today a woman threw a three-hundred-and-fifty-dollar fur cape out of the window. How did it feel? What were her sensations? She has told me her innermost thoughts. I'll write them out at fever heat, Scuttle. Words will pour from my fingertips onto the paper. The incident will live, will be perpetuated through posterity."

Lester Leith whipped off his coat and handed it to the valet. "Hang it up, Scuttle."

Leith jerked out the chair, sat down at the typewriter, and fed a piece of paper into the roller.

"May I ask why the delivery by taxicab?" the spy asked in a last desperate effort to get information.

Leith said, without looking up, "Don't interrupt me, Scuttle. I'm concentrating—delivery by taxicab?—why, of course, I had to buy these things at a secondhand place in the cheaper district because the other stores were closed. Those little places don't make deliveries. I had six taxicabs—quite a procession, Scuttle. Now let's see, how would we start this? I'll want it in the first person. Ah, yes! I have a title 'Throwing Money Away,' by Winnie Gail as told to Lester Leith."

Lester Leith laboriously tapped out the title and by-line on the typewriter, then pushed back his chair to stare at the blank sheet of paper. "Now, I'll need a beginning. Let's see—I tossed the fur cape out of the window. No, that doesn't sound right. I want something more dramatic. Let's see now—I tried on the fur cape the salesgirl handed me. It was a perfect fit. I was pleased with the soft luxury of the glossy fur. And I pitched it out of the window."

Lester Leith cocked his head on one side and studied the valet's expression. "How does that sound, Scuttle?"

"Very good, sir."

"Your face doesn't show it, Scuttle. There's a complete lack of enthusiasm."

"Yes, sir. If you'll permit me to say so, it sounds like the devil, sir."

"Yes," Lester Leith admitted, "it should be done more subtly."

He pushed back his chair, shoved his thumbs through the armholes of his vest, stared at the keyboard of the typewriter for several minutes, then got up and started pacing the floor. "Scuttle, how do writers get their inspiration?"

"I don't know, sir."

"The thing sounded so easy when I thought about it in general terms, but getting it down specifically ... I simply can't say, I threw it out of the window. Yet I don't know what else to say. Well, Scuttle, I'll make a start. It seems to me I've read somewhere that successful authors don't simply sit down and dash off a story, but have to labor over it, making many revisions, choosing their words with the greatest of care."

"Yes, sir."

"And," Lester Leith went on, "I'll try to get some new angle."

Leith sat down at the typewriter once more and doggedly began tapping out the words. The spy hovered obsequiously in the background.

"You needn't wait up, Scuttle. I'll probably be all hours."

"Can't I get you something, some Scotch and soda or—"

"No, Scuttle, I'm working."

"Very good, sir. If you don't mind, I thought I'd step out for a moment for a breath of air."

"Quite all right, Scuttle. Go ahead," Leith said, without looking up from the typewriter.

The spy walked down to the corner drugstore, called police headquarters, and got Sergeant Ackley on the line.

"Beaver," Ackley demanded, "what was the meaning of that procession,of taxicabs driving up to the place?"

The spy said, "He's becoming a writer. He got the inspiration for a story, and he had to start at it right away. He picked up a lot of secondhand furniture, typewriters, filing cases, and all that sort of junk, and had them delivered by taxicab."

Sergeant Ackley groaned. "You never know whether he's kidding you or actually slipping something over." Ackley groaned again.

There was a subtle tension throughout the offices of the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company. Beneath the routine exterior of a smoothly functioning business organization was that strain which manifests itself in surreptitious glances and whispered conferences in the restrooms.

Frank Packerson, editor of the Pidico News, sat in his private office, a pencil in his hand, aimlessly tracing designs on a sheet of papier.

The interoffice communcating system buzzer sounded, and Packerson almost mechanically threw the lever which made the connection. The voice of the girl at the information desk said, "An author is here with a manuscript which he is willing to sell for five hundred dollars to the Pidico News."

Packerson was startled. "A manuscript—five hundred dollars?" "Yes."

"Tell him we don't buy manuscripts. All our stuff is staff written. Tell him they don't allow me five hundred dollars for an entire issue."

"Yes, Mr. Packerson. I told him, but he insisted I should notify you. He also has a gun he wishes to sell." "A gun?" "Yes, sir."

Packerson was interested. "What sort of gun?"

"He says it's a genuine Ithabore over-and-under which he's willing to sell for fifteen dollars."

"A genuine Ithabore!" Packerson exclaimed. "For fifteen dollars?"

"Yes, sir."

Gun enthusiast that he was, Packerson could no more resist such a bargain than a baseball fan could turn down a free ticket to the World Series.

"Tell him to come in."

Packerson had expected some shabby out-at-the-elbows individual with long hair and glittering eyes. He was hardly prepared for the suave, well-dressed man who entered his office, carrying a briefcase in his right hand and two sole-leather gun cases over his left shoulder.

Instantly suspicious, Packerson said, "Understand, my man, I'm not buying guns from persons whom I know nothing about. I'll want a complete history of the gun."

"Oh, certainly," Lester Leith said. "I'm prepared to give you a bill of sale."

"I want more than a bill of sale. I'll want to know something about you. That price is—well, it's absurd for a genuine Ithabore over-and-under."

Lester Leith laughed. "Want me to make the price sixty dollars?"

Packerson flushed. "I'm only interested in getting another gun if the price is right. I'd hardly anticipated dealing with a well-dressed stranger who very apparently has two guns for sale. I think you can appreciate my position, Mr.—er—"

"Leith," his visitor said.

"Well, I think you see my position."

Lester Leith laughed. "As a matter of fact, Mr. Packerson, I am willing to sell this Ithabore cheap because I simply can't hit a thing wjth it, whereas I have a Betterbilt that simply knocks 'em dead."

Packerson shook his head. "I don't like the Betterbilt. I like an Ithabore over-and-under, without too much drop in the stock."

Leith said, "You should like this gun." He opened one of the gun cases, and Packerson gave the gun first a casual inspection, then put it together, tried the lock, swung it up to his shoulder once or twice, and turned to Leith with a puzzled expression. "How much did you say you wanted for this?" "Fifteen dollars."

Packerson stared at him suspiciously.

"For reference," Leith said, "you can ring up my banker." Packerson said, "I suppose you know what that gun cost new."

"Certainly."

"Then why the fifteen-dollar price?" Leith hesitated for a moment, then suddenly said, "I'll be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Packerson. I think there's a little bulge in the barrel. You can't see it when you're inside, but if you'll step over to the window and let the sun shine along the barrel, you can see it—a peculiar line of half-shadow."

Packerson walked over to the window, pushed the gun barrel out into the sunlight, studied it thoughtfully. Lester Leith remained at Packerson's desk, smoking a cigarette.

After a minute of close scrutiny, Packerson turned back to say, "I don't think— Well, there may be a slight bulge. I would say it was worth more than fifteen dollars, however."

Leith said, "Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Packerson, I thought if I'd make the price sufficiently attractive, I could get you to look at my manuscript. I—"

Packerson shook his head emphatically. "We don't buy any outside material."

Leith said with dignity, "Under those circumstances, I think I'd prefer to give some other editor an opportunity to look at the gun."

Packerson's face colored. "So that's the game! You want to bribe me to buy a manuscript for five hundred dollars by selling me an Ithabore for about a tenth of what it's worth. Why, you crook! Get out of here! Go on, take your gun! What sort of man do you think I am, anyway? A cheap bribe like that!" Lester Leith, summoning what dignity he could muster, picked up his briefcase, swung the sole-leather gun cases over his shoulder and walked out, while Frank Packerson followed him to the door to finish what he had to say.

Lester Leith was just emerging from the elevator when he saw Bernice Lamen step from a bus at the corner and start walking with quick, businesslike steps toward the entrance of the Rust Commercial Building. He waited until she caught his eye.

She stopped to stare at him in astonishment. "What in the world!" she exclaimed.

Leith said, "You look happy."

"I am. But what in the world are you doing with all the arsenal?"

Leith said, "I am in the depths of despondency."

"Why? What's the matter?"

"I worked so hard on my story"—Leith sighed—"and now it's been rejected."

"Where did you submit it?"

"To the Pidico News. Your editor, Frank Packerson, was uninterested."

"Good heavens," she said, "he doesn't have any money to buy outside manuscripts."

Leith said, "Money wasn't the big inducement. I wanted to see my name in print."

She studied him with a puzzled frown, drawing her finely arched brows into a straighter line. "Are you serious?"

"Never more serious in my life, but let's not talk about my troubles. What makes you look so happy?"

She said, "I've just received a personal apology from Jason Bellview and instructions to return to work."

"You mean you've been exonerated?"

"Well, at least they've decided I can go back to work."

Leith said thoughtfully, "I don't see that as any cause of jubilation."

"You would if you were dependent on a salary and if being let out under suspicious circumstances would prevent you from getting a job anywhere else."

"That bad?" Leith asked.

"That bad, and worse."

"Under the circumstances," Leith announced, "we need a drink. You to celebrate, I to recuperate."

"I've got to go to work."

Leith said, "On the contrary, that is the worst thing you could do."

"What do you mean?"

"Where's your sense of independence? Are you going to let them insult you, drag you down to the office of a private detective, grill you, have the police take over, give you the third degree, be smeared with the brush of suspicion, held up to the ridicule of your fellow employees, and then grasp eagerly at the first sop they hand you and rush back to work?"

"Why not?"

"Because there are better ways. You should make them respect you. You should demand a public apology and some remuneration for the inconvenience they've caused you, to say nothing of the damage they've done to your reputation."

"I'm afraid I'm not built that way."

Leith surveyed her critically. "There is," he announced, "nothing wrong with your build."

She flushed, then laughed. "Really, Mr. Leith, I'm sorry about your story having been rejected, but I can't stand here chatting. I've work to do."

Leith indicated his car parked at the curb. He asked, "Couldn't you postpone it for about thirty minutes—just long enough to have a drink?"

She hesitated.

"And if you'd let me handle Jason Bellview," he said, "I feel quite certain that he would make an apology in front of all the employees of the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company."

She said, "I'd just love to have that happen, but it's asking too much. Bellview would die first."

Leith said, "Let's talk it over while we're having a drink. 1 know where they make some marvelous spiced coffee with brandy and cinnamon bark, orange peel, and— Oh, come on. We'll talk it over there."

She said, "Well, all right, but I don't want to be too late."

Fifteen minutes later, over a restaurant table, they watched a deft waiter mix ingredients, saw the blue flame of burning brandy flicker upward to cast an aromatic halo about the bowl, as the waiter stirred the mixture with a silver ladle. Then, when he had lifted out two cups of the spiced beverage and discreetly withdrawn, Leith said, "At least let me ring up Jason Bellview."

"What would you tell him?"

"I'd tell him that he had done you a great wrong, that you wouldn't return to work until he paid you ten thousand dollars and made a public apology. Then, after a little trading, I'd settle for five thousand."

She said, "Five seconds after you telephoned, I'd be out of a job."

Leith gravely took a billfold from his pocket. From it he took ten one-hundred-dollar bills and placed them in a neat pile on the tablecloth. "I have one thousand dollars," he announced, "which says that no such thing would happen."

She stared at the money, then raised her eyes to his face. "You're the strangest individual I've ever met."

"At least that's something," Leith acknowledged. "In these days of widespread mediocrity, it's something to be outstanding, even if one is given credit for a mild brand of insanity."

"There's nothing mild about it," she retorted, laughing. "Are you really serious?"

By way of answer Leith caught the waiter's eye. "Bring me a telephone."

The waiter brought a telephone with a long extension cord and plugged it into a phone jack at the table. Lester Leith consulted his notebook and swiftly dialed a number.

Bernice Lamen watched him with apprehensive eyes.

"Hello," Leith said. "I want to talk with Mr. Jason Bellview. Tell him it's about his blueprints."

During the interval which elapsed, while Leith was waiting for Jason Bellview to come on the line, Bernice Lamen said, "In about ten minutes I'm going to think this was the most madly insane impulse I ever had in my life. I'll kick myself all around the block for not stopping you, but right now I'm curious and—and—"

A heavy masculine voice came over the wire, saying, "Yes, this is Bellview. What's this about the blueprints?"

Lester Leith said suavely, "I wanted to talk with you about Miss Lamen."

"What about her?"

Leith said, "You've damaged her character. You've accused her of a crime. You've forced her into submitting to a most humiliating experience. Now, you apparently think that—" "Who's this talking?" Bellview roared in a voice so loud that it seemed his words might rip the receiver apart. "This is Lester Leith." "You a lawyer?"

"No," Leith said. "I'm a friend. I'm hoping that it won't be necessary . . ."

"Well, if you're not a lawyer, what business is it of yours?" Leith said, "I'm a financier." "A what?"

"A financier. I finance various business activities. At present I'm financing Miss Lamen in her claim against you. I'm hoping it isn't going to be necessary to get a lawyer." "Get a hundred lawyers!" Bellview shouted. "Very well," Leith said, "only kindly remember that I offered to make a reasonable settlement with you. Perhaps you'd better consult your own attorney and see what he has tc say."

"I refuse to pay blackmail!" Bellview said. "Have it your own way," Leith said. "Only remember, when your company gets involved in a hundred-thousand-dol- lar lawsuit and your lawyer tells you you haven't a leg to stand on, you had a chance to settle the case out of court. And if the stockholders of the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company learn of it . . ." "Say, wait a minute. I never turn down anything sight unseen. What's your figure?"

"Ten thousand dollars."

"All right, it's turned down. I feel better now. You couldn't stick us for that much."

"That's what you think."

Bellview said, "That's what I know. Good-by."

The sound made by the slamming receiver at the other end of the line was distinctly audible.

Bernice Lamen sighed. "I knew it," she said.

Lester Leith picked up the ten one-hundred-dollar bills and slid them over under her saucer. "Remember, you've got these coming if it doesn't work."

"No. I can't take the money—but we're licked. He's already reached his decision. It was a gamble, and we lost."

Leith smiled. "Under those circumstances, we'd better have a little more spiced coffee. There's no reason for you to go back to the office now."

Tears came to her eyes. She blinked them back, laughed, and said, "Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted."

Leith said, "Well, don't worry about it. Things are happening about the way I thought they would."

"You mean you thought he'd turn you down?"

Leith nodded.

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because he'll think it over and call up his lawyer. After we've had another cup of coffee I'll call him up again, and then you may hear a different story."

They chatted over the second cup of coffee, had a brandy and Benedictine, and then Leith dialed Jason Bellview's number again and got the crusty president of the instrument company on the line. This time Bellview's voice was cautious. "Listen, Leith, perhaps you won't have to go to a lawyer. The more I think of it, the more I think Miss Lamen is entitled to something—but ten thousand, of course, is out of the question."

"She'll want an apology," Leith said, "delivered in front of the entire office force."

Bellview hesitated for a minute. "That might be arranged," he conceded. "And," Leith went on, "she'll want ten thousand dollars in cash."

"Wait a minute," Bellview said, and Leith heard the sounds of whispers at the other end of the line.

"We'll offer twenty-five hundred," Bellview said. "Nothing doing," Leith told him. "Ten or nothing. The minute I hang up I'm going to see my lawyer. Personally, I think she's entitled to a real nice chunk of money. You—" "Wait a minute," Bellview said.

This time there was no attempt to disguise the whispering. Leith could even hear the hum of low-voiced conversation.

"You send Bernice Lamen up to my office," Bellview instructed.

Leith laughed and said, "No chance. You don't talk with her until you've agreed to pay ten thousand. Otherwise you talk with a lawyer."

There was a momentary pause, then Leith heard Bellview mutter, apparently to some person standing beside him, "He says it's ten or nothing. That's too much. What do we do?"

The low voice made a suggestion, then Bellview said into the telephone, "I'll put my cards on the table. My lawyer's here. We've talked this thing over. You may have a lawsuit. You may not. We'll pay five thousand as a cash settlement."

Lester Leith smiled into the transmitter. "You've saved yourself a lawsuit," he said.

"All right, tell Miss Lamen to come up here right away." Lester Leith dropped the receiver into place, reached across, and pickcd up the one thousand dollars from under Bernice Lamen's saucer.

She looked up at him, her eyes large with incredulity. "You mean—"

Leith said, "You may not stand much chance, but with that face and figure, you should at least go to Hollywood and try

SOMETHING LIKE A PELICAN 133

for a screen test. A girl can do a lot on five thousand dollars."

Captain Carmichael was enjoying a cigar and the sporting page of the morning newspaper when Sergeant Ackley, carrying a cardboard folder, entered the office.

"What is it this time?" Carmichael asked, frowning as he looked up.

Sergeant Ackley sat down on the other side of the captain's desk. "This guy Leith," he said disgustedly. "What about him?"

"Beaver said he'd written a letter to me, and he thought it might be a good idea for me to know what was in the letter before Leith signed it and mailed it."

Captain Carmichael's eyes danced. "A confession?" "You listen to it," Sergeant Ackley said, "then you can tell

11

mtt

Ackley turned back the pasteboard folder and read from a carbon copy of a letter

My dear Sergeant The original manuscripts of famous authors have at times commanded fabulous prices. It is, perhaps, conceited to think that my own efforts will some day be worth thousands of dollars to the discriminating collector. Yet, after all, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other famous writers must have felt the same way when they regarded their manuscripts.

This story, my dear Sergeant, has been rejected by the publisher, which may make it even more valuable. In any event, I want you to have it as a token of friendship and as some slight measure of my appreciation for the zealous efforts you have made to enforce the law, even when my own convenience has been sacrificed to your zeal.

Sergeant Ackley looked up. "Now what," he asked, "do you make of that?"

"Nothing," Captain Carmichael said.

"That's the way I feel about it, but he told Beaver the letter wasn't to be mailed until tomorrow, so Beaver thought I might want to know about it today."

"What's the manuscript?" Carmichael asked.

"A bunch of tripe," Ackley said.

"Did you read it?"

"Oh, I glanced through it."

Captain Carmichael reached for the manuscript. "This is a carbon copy?"

"Uh-huh."

"How come?"

"He isn't going to mail this letter until tomorrow, you see, and he has the original story with him."

Captain Carmichael frowningly regarded the carbon copy. "He must have some reason for sending it to you."

"Just wants to give me the old razzberry."

Captain Carmichael frowned at the end of his cigar. "Don't be too certain, Sergeant. You know Leith may have intended to grab off the swag and then give you a tip to the crook."

"Why should he do that?"

"Well, you know this crime is a little different from the other crimes we've worked on. This is getting pretty close to treason, and I don't think Leith would care very much about shielding a traitor."

"All he cares about is getting the swag."

"Ar.d you've read through this?" Carmichael asked.

Sergeant Ackley fished a cigar from his waistcoat pocket and nodded.

Carmichael turned rapidly through the pages. Suddenly he said, "Wait a minute. What's this?"

"Where?" Ackley asked.

"On page five," Carmichael said. "Listen to this

"It isn't every place that would be suitable as a hiding place

for a set of blueprints. It would take a long, hollow tube, and

such a tube would be hard to conceal."

"Well," Ackley snorted, "what's significant about that?"

Captain Carmichael's face showed his excitement. "Wait a minute!" he exclaimed. "That's just paving the way for the next paragraph. Listen to this

"As soon as the actress I had employed started screaming for the police, I noticed a man pick up a shotgun. This man was in the offices of the Precision Instrument Company, standing in the doorway of an office which adjoined that containing the vault. A shotgun. How interesting!"

Captain Carmichael looked up. "Well, don't you get it?" "Get what?" Sergeant Ackley said. "The shotgun!" Carmichael shouted. Sergeant Ackley said, "We know all about that. Frank Packerson, the editor of the Pidico house organ, had been trap- shooting, and—"

"Are there some photographs that go with this?" Carmichael asked.

"The same ones you saw. They don't mean anything." "The shotgun!" Captain Carmichael shouted. "Don't you get it, you fool? The shotgun!" "What about it?"

Captain Carmichael pushed back his chair. His voice showed that he was making an effort to keep his temper. "Tomorrow Lester Leith wanted you to read this manuscript. You're reading it just twenty-four hours early. In this manuscript Leith intended to show you how to get the man who had stolen those blueprints. By that time Leith intended to have the blueprints and have covered his tracks so you could never get anything on him. By virtue of some nice brainwork on the part of Beaver, you get this stuff twenty-four hours early—and haven't sense enough to know what it means."

Sergeant Ackley's face became a shade darker. "Well," he demanded, "what does it mean?"

Captain Carmichael got to his feet. "Get a squad car," he said, "and I'll show you."

Frank Packerson clicked on the interoffice loudspeaker. The reception clerk announced, "Two gentlemen from headquarters."

Packerson smiled. "Show them in."

Captain Carmichael did the talking. "We're working on that blueprint case, Packerson. The thief must have had some unusual hiding place prepared in advance. All he needed was a second or two to slip the blueprints out of the vault and into this hiding place.

"In other words," Carmichael went on, "the theory we're working on now is that the thief had some hiding place so carefully prepared that, while it was instantly available, no one would ever have thought to look there. A hiding place where he could push the blueprints—a long, smooth, slender tube. After that, the tube could be taken out of the building without arousing suspicion."

Packerson wasn't smiling now.

"A man could be holding a shotgun in his hands," Captain Carmichael went on, "standing right in front of the safe, asserting that he was looking for a thief, and people would naturally regard the shotgun as a weapon—not as a hiding placef"

Packerson's face was flushed. Little beads of perspiration dotted his forehead. He cleared his throat and said, "I don't know what you're insinuating, Captain. In my case, it happens that I had a gun. Naturally, when I was aroused by someone shouting for the police, I grabbed the gun. Are you insinuating . . ."

"That you shoved the blueprints down the barrel," Captain Carmichael said.

"No, no! I swear that I didn't, absolutely not!"

Captain Carmichael was insistent. "Yes, you did, Packer- son. You grabbed your gun and stood right by the vault, holding it in your hands. Everyone thought you were standing there, protecting the property of the company. No one realized that you yourself—"

"I tell you, I didn't. I . . ."

Captain Carmichael got up. "Let's take a look at your gun, Packerson."

Packerson pushed back his chair, grabbed the gun which was reposing behind his desk. "No," he asserted. "That gun is my private property. You can't look at it unless you have a search warrant."

Sergeant Ackley moved belligerently forward.

Packerson jumped back and raised the gun as though to swing it as a weapon. "Keep away from me," he shouted, "or I'll cave in your skull—"

He ceased talking abruptly as his eyes came to focus on the small black hole which was the business end of Captain Car- michael's revolver.

"Stick 'em up," Carmichael said.

Packerson hesitated for a moment, then dropped the gun. His knees buckled.

"You got the blueprints in there now?" Captain Carmichael asked.

Packerson shook his head. "The money for them," he said.

Carmichael exchanged a significant glance with Sergeant Ackley. "Who gave you the money, Packerson?"

"Gilbert, the furrier."

"He planned the whole thing?" Carmichael asked.

"Him and Fanny Gillmeyer. There really wasn't any customer. Fanny kept watching the offices over here. When she saw the coast was clear so that I could dash into the vault, grab the blueprints, and get out before anyone noticed what I was doing, she tossed the cape out of the window and started yelling for the police. I had just time to grab the shotgun, jump into the vault, push the blueprints down the barrel, and then stand with the gun at my shoulder."

"Where are the blueprints now?"

"I gave them to Gilbert. I walked out last night carrying my trap gun, and walked right past the guard."

Captain Carmichael frowned. "Then you brought the gun back again today?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Don't you see?" Packerson said. "I got thirty thousand dollars for those blueprints. The money's in fifty-dollar bills. I didn't dare leave that money in my room, and I didn't dare keep it in my possession. So I rolled the bills into packages that would just fit the gun barrel and shoved them in the barrel of the gun. In that way I could keep the money with me all the time. In case anyone began to suspect me and I had to take it on the lam, I was all ready for a getaway."

Carmichael gave a low whistle. "So there's thirty thousand dollars in that gun?"

Packerson nodded.

Carmichael walked around the desk, stooped down, picked up the gun, and broke the barrel open.

It was Sergeant Ackley who blurted out, "There's no money in here now."

Captain Carmichael kicked Ackley's shins. Packerson jumped to his feet. "No money in there!" He grabbed at the gun, stared at it with startled eyes, and said, "But that's not my gun"

Captain Carmichael nudged Sergeant Ackley in the ribs.

"It's not my gun," Packerson repeated. "It's the same make and the same model, but my gun had a scratch and . . ." His voice trailed away.

"Well, go on," Sergeant Ackley said.

A crafty smile came over Packerson's face. "Ha, ha," he said. "That's a great joke on you."

"What is?" Ackley asked.

"Of course it's my gun," Packerson said. "I never saw the blueprints, but since you birds thought you were such good detectives, I thought I'd kid you along for a while."

Captain Carmichael said, "A quick thinker, aren't you, Packerson?"

Sergeant Ackley turned to the captain with a puzzled frown. "I don't get it at all, Cap," he said.

Captain Carmichael pulled handcuffs from his hip pocket. "If," he announced, "you'd kept your big mouth shut about the money not being there, we'd have had a complete confession. As it is, we can still get those blueprints if we get after Gilbert and that clerk of his right away. As far as the money is

concerned—well, we can still get that, if we work fast enough, thanks to the fact that you got your manuscript twenty-four hours in advance. Now do you get it, dumb head?"

Sergeant Ackley was staring at Captain Carmichael with eyes that seemed unable to focus. "You mean—Lester Leith— been here—changed guns ..."

"Exactly," Captain Carmichael said. "Now, come on, first to Gilbert's . . ."

Bernice Lamen lingered over her last drink with Lester Leith. Her eyes, as she raised them to regard his profile, were warm with appreciation. "I don't know," she said, "how I can ever thank you. I—"

One of the busboys, who had been standing near the window, approached the table and bent deferentially above Lester Leith. "Excuse me," he interrupted, "but is your car number

XL552?"

Leith's eyes narrowed. "That's my license number," he admitted.

"I think you've violated a parking ordinance. I've noticed a couple of cops looking it over, and now they're sitting in a squad car just outside the door, apparently waiting for you to come back to the car."

Lester Leith absently fished a roll of bills from his pocket, peeled off a ten-dollar bill, and pushed it into the busboy's hand. "Thanks very much," he said. "I tore up a couple of traffic tickets. I guess they've caught up with me. By the way, could you get me about a hundred of these paper cocktail napkins?"

The busboy stared at the bill. "Gee, mister, thanks. Paper napkins? Gosh, yes, I should say so."

Lester Leith turned to his feminine companion. "On second thought," he said, "I think it would be better for you to have your talk with Jason Bellview without me being there. Now, I'm going to leave the restaurant in a few minutes, and you'd better wait ten or fifteen minutes before you go out, then take a taxicab to Bellview's office."

The busboy brought a huge stack of small paper cocktail napkins.

"My gun," Lester Leith explained, "needs cleaning. I wonder if I could step out in the kitchen to run some napkins through it?"

"Why, certainly, but you don't need tq. use napkins. I can get you a rag and—"

"No," Leith said. "Napkins really work better." He got to his feet and bowed to Bernice Lamen.

Puzzled, she saw him follow the busboy in the direction of the kitchen, nor was she greatly surprised when he failed to return. She waited a full fifteen minutes, then started for the door.

"Wait a minute," the busboy said. "He's forgotten one of his guns."

"Oh, that's right, he did. He's gone?" "Yes. Out through the kitchen door into the alley." Bernice Lamen smiled brightly. "Under those circumstances, you'd better keep this gun here—until he calls for it later."

Sergeant Ackley, sitting in the squad car, suddenly grabbed Captain Carmichael'srm. "By George, here he coma down that side street. And he's got the gun with him."

"Take it easy now, Sergeant," Captain Carmichael said. "Don't tip our hand until we know we're right."

Lester Leith, a gun case swung over his shoulder, a briefcase in his hand, walked up to his ear and slid in behind the wheel.

Captain Carmichael said, "Olcay, Sergeant, do your stuff, but don't make the arrest unless you're certain you've caught him red-handed."

Sergeant Ackley nodded, slid out of the squad car, and started back toward Leith's automobile.

Lester Leith was just pressing his foot on the starter when Sergeant Ackley tapped him on the shoultjer.

Leith looked up. His face showed incredulous surprise. "You!" he said.

Sergeant Ackley's grin was triumphant. "Just checking up on stolen shotguns, Leith," he said. "That shotgun in the case is yours all right?"

Leith hesitated perceptibly.

"I'll just take a look at it," Sergeant Ackley said.

He pulled the gun case out through the window, unfastened the end of the gun case, pulled out the barrels, and held them to the light. The left-hand barrel shone with a clear, smooth polish. The right-hand barrel was choked up with rolled papers.

Sergeant Ackley's grin was triumphant. He tossed the gun into the back of the car. "Come on, Leith," he said. "You're going to headquarters."

Leith said, "I don't get you."

"No. But I've got you," Sergeant Ackley gloated. "It's been a long lane, but this is where the turn comes. Drive to headquarters, or I'll put the nippers on you and call the wagon."

Without a word Leith started the car and drove to headquarters. Following along behind, Captain Carmichael guarded against any break for escape.

In front of the desk sergeant, Ackley permitted himself a bit of gloating. "All right, boys," he said, Til show you a little shrewd deduction. Give me something I can push down the barrel of this shotgun, and I'll show you a little parlor magic."

"Cut the comedy," Captain Carmichael said.

But Sergeant Ackley couldn't resist an opportunity for glory. "Notice," he said as one of the officers handed him a wooden dowel, "that I have nothing in either hand and nothing up my sleeve. I push this wooden dowel through the left barrel of the shotgun, and nothing happens. Now then, I push it through the right barrel, and you'll see thirty thousand dollars in fifly-dollar bills come showering out on the floor."

Ackley pushed hard with the improvised ramrod.

There was a period of surprised silence then a gale of laughter ran around the room as a shower of paper cocktail napkins burst from the barrel of the shotgun.

"A new scheme," Leith said urbanely. "Someone told me it would keep a barrel from rusting. I decided to use paper in the right barrel and nothing in the left, put the gun away for six months, and see which barrel was in better condition. I'm sorry, Sergeant, but you've destroyed my experiment."

Captain Carmichael took Sergeant Ackley's arm. "Come on," he said.

Lester Leith said to the desk sergeant, "I really didn't steal those cocktail napkins. They were given to me."

Captain Carmichael rushed Sergeant Ackley outside.

"Blast it, Sergeant, I told you that the big danger about using the Chinese Method of fishing was that you had to keep a rope tied tightly around the bird's neck."

Sergeant Ackley said, "Gosh, Captain, I'd like to get one of those pelican birds for that lake up in—"

"It wouldn't do you any good," Captain Carmichael snapped. "You wouldn't know how to tie up a bird's neck so he couldn't swallow the fish."

A Man Is Missing

SHERIFF BILL CATLIN spilled the contents of the envelope on his battered desk and glowered at the younger man across from him, who sat uncomfortably attentive.

"The trouble with these dudes," the sheriff said, "is that they think out here in Idaho we ain't civilized. Now, here's Ed Harvel, the chief of police who was visiting out here three years ago. He wants me to locate an amnesia victim, and he writes me a two-page letter telling me how to go about it."

Hank Lucas nodded vaguely as the sheriff's steely eyes looked up over the top of his spectacles.

"Now, this here Chap," the sheriff went on, "had a previous attack. He wandered off on his own. Was gone for three months, came back, and didn't know where he'd been. Never has been able to remember a thing about it. Didn't know what he'd done, what name he went under, where he lived, or anything about it. He just left his office five o'clock one afternoon and started for home. He showed up three months later. Ain't that a heck of a note?"

"That," Lucas agreed, "is a heck of a note."

"Now then," the sheriff went on, "a year ago he did it again. Disappeared last September. But this time he writes his wife a picture postcard. Sends it to her 'way back last Octo-ber."

"Hey, wait a minute," Hank said. "If he sent his wife a picture postcard, his mind hasn't gone plumb blank. How did he know where to address it?"

"I'm coming to that," the sheriff said. "That's the funny thing. He'd been married three years, but he addressed the postcard to his wife under her maiden name and sent it to the old address where she lived- when he was courting her. Been married to her and still thinks she's his sweetie pie." .

Hank didn't say anything.

"Now, this here Ed Harvel," the sheriff went on, "I guess he's a bang-up chief of police back East, but you put him out here and he's just a dude. Had him into the Middle Fork country three years ago, and there wasn't a single tenderfoot trick he didn't pull—even to getting lost. Now, when he writes to me, he tells me what he wants done and then goes on and tells me how I should do it. You'd think I'd never done any investigating at all. Suggests this chap, whose name is Frank Adrian, is still going under his own name, because he signed the postcard 'Frank.' Says it might be a good plan to check with the banks to see if he's opened an account, talk with the proprietors of some of the stores in town, go search the backcountry, and—"

"Ain't that all right?" Hank asked.

The sheriff snorted. "It's the idea of him telling me how I should go about finding the guy! Anyhow, I don't think that's the best way to do it." "No?" Hank asked.

"Nope," the sheriff said positively, and then added, "Funny thing about dudes—"

"You said you wanted to see me official, Bill," Hank inter-rupted, shifting his position uneasily.

"Now, don't get impatient," the sheriff said. "A man would think you'd been shooting meat outta season and was afraid you'd left a back trail."

"You'd ought to know how it feels," Hank said. "I can re-member before you was elected when—"

"Now, this here amnesia guy," the sheriff interrupted hast- ily but authoritatively, "seems to have gone over in the Middle Fork country and lived in a cabin. He had a camera, and someone took his picture standing in front of his cabin. It was sent to his wife—addressed to her, like I said, under her maiden name, Corliss Lathan.

"The postcard was mailed from Twin Falls, and darned if they didn't waste a lot of time corresponding with the folks down in Twin Falls. Then finally someone suggested it might be the Middle Fork country, and it seems like the man who is in charge of the missing-persons department found out Ed Harvel had been out here three years ago. So he goes to Ed and asks Ed for the name of the sheriff. And instead of writing a letter of introduction, Ed takes over and writes me the whole story and—"

"You wanted to ask me something about it?" Hank inter-rupted.

The sheriff pushed the photographic postcard across the desk. "Take a look."

Hank looked at the card. On the side reserved for the message was written "Corliss, dear, this shows where I am living. It's the wildest, most inaccessible place you can imagine. I still feel the results of that auto accident six weeks ago, but what with climbing around these mountains, living on venison and trout, getting lots of fresh air and exercise, I'll be fit in no time at all."

The card was addressed to Miss Corliss Lathan.

Hank turned the card over and studied the photograph of a mountain cabin, with a man standing in front of it smiling fat-uously at the camera. "Auto accident?" Hank asked.

"According to Ed Harvel, that accident was three years ago. The date on the card shows it was sent about six weeks after the guy disappeared the second time. Apparently he got his head banged in that accident, and whenever his memory slips a cog, it goes back to the time of the accident. Everything after that is a blank."

Hank studied the postcard.

"What do you make out of it?" the sheriff asked.

"A trapper's cabin," Hank said, "up on a ridge. It was built in the fall. You can see where the trees were chopped off around near the cabin—indicates there was about three feet of snow on the ground. The guy's sure a tenderfoot."

"He is, for a fact," the sheriff agreed.

"Those high boots," Hank went on. "Hobnails in 'em too. Bet they weigh a ton. Look at that hunting knife hanging on his belt. Pretty far front. No protection on the sheath. He'd go hunting, jump over a log, double up when he lit, and the point of that knife would run through that leather sheath right into his leg and cut the big artery. Then we'd have another dead dude to pack out. . . . What makes you think the cabin's around here?"

"Notice that little 'T.M.' up in the corner?"

Hank nodded.

"That's Tom Morton's initials. He puts 'em on the postcards he prints, with a string of figures after 'em. I don't know just what the idea is myself. But I've seen those sets of figures on picture postcards Tom makes of the fishing country and places around town. Tom printed that postcard, all right."

"You talk with Tom?" Hank asked.

"Nope, I was sorta waiting for you."

"Why me?"

"Well, now," the sheriff said, "you see, it's like this, Hank. I want you to sorta help me out."

"Now, wait a minute," Hank said. "The way you're talkin', Bill, you've gone and made some arrangements."

"Nothing out of the way," Sheriff Catlin said hastily. "I've got you a couple of customers. A couple of dudes."

"Who?" Hank asked.

"Seems like this Corliss Adrian has all of a sudden got in a helluva lather to get her husband located. Seems like there's another man been hanging around, and maybe she'd like to get a divorce. To do that she'd like to make a charge of desertion and serve papers. Or, in case she's a widow, then she could get married again right away. This here new man has got lots of money, and he's willing to spend it. He wants results quick. And the high-powered city detective who's been in charge of the investigation, a chap by the name of James Dew- itt, has a vacation coming up. So he and this Corliss Adrian are driving out together, and they wanted—"

"Absolutely not," Hank said. "I can't—"

"They'll pay regular dude prices," the sheriff finished tri-umphantly.

"Well ..." Hank hesitated. "That's different. How about the other guy, the one who wants to marry her? Is he com- ing?"

"Course not," the sheriff said. "He's keeping under cover, hugging the ground like a spotted fawn and hoping no one sees him. He's the rich son of a big broker back there. Lots of dough and political influence—chap name of Gridley. His dad's a pal of Ed Harvel's, and that's partly why Ed's all worked up. You can see the thing from Gridley's viewpoint. S'pose they locate this husband and his mind's a blank, or maybe he's just checked out of marriage because he's tired of it. But he gets a lawyer and starts a suit for alienating affections or some such business. Nope, Gridley's son is sitting just as still as a pheasant in a grain patch."

Hank said, "Well, I've got my pack string where I could take a party into the Middle Fork. Of course, I don't know what sort this city detective is, and—"

"Let's you an' me go to see Tom Morton," the sheriff sug-gested. . . .

The sheriff and Hank Lucas lsft the wooden courthouse and went out into the sun. The sprawling Idaho town was deceptive to those who didn't know it. A single long main street stretching in a thin ribbon of frame business structures, many of which were in need of paint, gave little indication of the innate prosperity of the place. For a radius of more than fifty miles, cattlemen used the facilities of the town to service their ranches. Business from a county as big as some of the eastern states flowed into the county seat. The bank, housed in a one- story frame structure, casually discussed financial deals which would have jarred many a more pretentious city bank to its granite foundations.

The sheriff and Hank Lucas turned in at Tom Morton's doorway. The entrance room was bleak and cold, decorated with pictures of familiar faces, young men in uniform, girls at the time of high-school graduation. Here and there were hand-colored photographs of the mountainous backcountry.

Ignoring the sign, "Ring for Photographer," the sheriff arid Lucas clumped noisily along the uncarpeted corridor toward the living quarters and the darkroom in the rear.

"Hi, Tom," the sheriff called.

"Hello," a voice answered from behind a door marked "Darkroom."

"This is the sheriff. Watcha doin'?"

"Just taking some 61ms out of the developer. Stick around a minute, and I'll be with you."

Making themselves entirely at home with the assurance of people who live in neighborly harmony, the pair moved on into the living room, settled down in chairs by a potbellied stove which radiated welcome warmth, and waited for Tom Morton to emerge from the darkroom.

A few minutes later the photographer, tall, thin, wrapped in an aura of acid-fixing bath which gave him the odor of a dill pickle, said, "What can I do for you boys?"

Bill Catlin showed him the photograph. "You make this postcard, Tom?"

"Gosh, I don't know."

"Ain't these figures in pen and ink up in the corner yours?"

The photographer took the print, turned it over, and examined the figures in the upper right-hand corner. "That's right," he said.

"How come?" the sheriff asked.

Morton grinned. "Well, if you guys have got to know something that's none of your business, I don't have a very big margin in this business. All photographic stuff has an expiration date put on it by the manufacturer. That's the limit during which the manufacturer will guarantee it's okay. But stuff will last for months or even years after that if it's had the right kind of care. And once the expiration date is past, you can pick it up cheap if you know where to go.

"Well, last year I had a chance to pick up three or four lots of postcard paper on which the expiration date had passed. I put figures on them so I'd know which lot was which, in case I had to discard one. Sometimes just before the paper begins to go bad the prints get a little muddy. But I was lucky. I didn't have any trouble at all."

"So you're sure this was a print you made?"

"That's right."

"Try to think when you made it."

"Gosh, Bill, have a heart!"

"Take a good look at it," the sheriff invited.

Morton studied the postcard, while the sheriff regarded him anxiously. Hank Lucas, having tilted himself back in his chair, put his boots up to the arm of another chair and perused an il-lustrated periodical.

Morton examined the figure on the postcard and said, "Say, wait a minute. I'm kind of beginning to remember something about that picture."

" 'Atta boy," the sheriff encouraged.

Morton said, "There was something funny about it. . . . Yeah, I remember what it was now. The guy wanted just one print made."

"What's so funny about that?"

"Well, when people want a picture put on postcards, usually they want at least a dozen, to send to friends. This fellow came in and said he wanted one print made, and only one."

"You developed the film? Or do you remember?"

"No, I didn't. That was another thing. He brought the film with him, all developed. And he handed me this one postcard- size film and told me to make one print on a postcard. He said he wanted to send it to his girl."

"Remember what he looked like?"

"He was the guy in the picture."

"Well, now, that's interesting. Probably along about last September?"

"I thought it was earlier. I thought it was some time in the summer."

"Couldn't have been in the summer," the sheriff said. "Must have been in September."

Morton studied the pen-and-ink number on the upper right-hand corner of the postcard and said, "I didn't think the stuff was still on hand in September. This was a batch I got around April. I thought it was gone by August. Guess I'm wrong, though."

"Well, we got the date on the postcard and the time of the man's disappearance."

"What disappearance?"

"He went off the beam. Had amnesia. His wife's looking for him. You wouldn't remember anything about him—the name he gave or anything of that sort?"

"Gosh, no. Along during the fishing season I get a lot of work from dudes, and I just keep the names long enough to deliver the pictures."

"Well, Tom, just make a photo of this here postcard and make us half a dozen prints right quick. Can you do that?"

Tom Morton looked at his watch. "How soon you want 'em?"

"Soon as I can get 'em."

"Don't know why I asked," Morton said, aggrieved. "You been making that same answer to that question ever since you been sheriff. . . ."

As the two men went clump-clump-clumping out along the board corridor, Hank Lucas said to the sheriff, "You know, Bill, if that fellow'd been in the Middle Fork country ever since last fall, I'd have known about it. He could have gone in for a month or two and holed up in a cabin somewhere, but— Let me see that description again."

Catlifi passed over the description from Ed Harvel's letter.

"Five feet nine," Hank said. "Age, thirty-two. Weight, a hundred and eighty-five pounds. Red hair. Blue eyes. Fair

complexion. Freckles. . . . Shucks, Bill, he hasn't been in the country very long. And if he went in, he didn't stay."

"I know," the sheriff said soothingly, "but this here Ed Harvel, he thinks the only way to make a search is to go on into the Middle Fork and prowl up and down the country looking for this cabin."

"The cabin," Hank said, "can probably be located. It's up on a ridge, was built by someone who had a line of traps, was started in the fall before there was any snow on the ground, and finished after there'd been a storm that brought in about three feet of snow. You can tell where the stumps were cut close to the ground and then higher up. And those last saplings that stick out over the door to hang traps and stuff on were cut off five feet above the ground. The stumps are right near the cabin."

Bill Catlin grinned at him. "I wouldn't say anything like that to this detective that's coming out, Hank."

"Why not?"

"Well, now," the sheriff said, "it's a funny thing about city detectives. They think they're the only ones can do any of this here deductive reasoning. They don't realize that all that police work is is just following a trail, and that a cowboy has to do more trail work in a day than a detective does in a month. This here Dewitt is goin' to pose as a sportsman, but he's going to be playing old eagle eye. And if you steal his thunder, it might not go so good."

Hank grinned. "Me? I'm just a rough, tough old cow poke turned wrangler. How long's it been since this Gridley guy got to hangin' around?"

"Now, that," the sheriff said, "is something Ed Harvel didn't tell me about. You ain't s'posed to know a thing about Gridley, Hank. And don't treat this dude like a detective. You're s'posed to know you're lookin' for a cabin and a guy that's missing, but this detective will probably be posin' as a dude friend of the family."

"That," Hank retorted with a grin, "makes it easy. . . ."

The woman who left the noon stage and entered the hotel was slender-waisted, smooth-hipped, self-reliant. She seemed to have confidence in her ability to accomplish what she set out to do and to know exactly what it was she had in mind.

There was about her the stamp of the city. Obviously, she was in unfamiliar surroundings as she stood for a moment glancing up and down the street with its variegated assortment of frame buildings. Then she raised her eyes to look over the tops of the structures at the background of high mountains. At this elevation and in the dry air, the shadows, with their sharp lines of demarcation, seemed almost black, contrasted with the vivid glare of the sunlight. Rocky peaks stabbed upward into the deep blue of the sky, dazzling in their sun-bathed brilliance.

Abruptly conscious of the fact that the stage driver was watching her curiously, she walked smoothly and unhesitatingly into the hotel, crossed the lobby to the desk, nodded to Ray Fieldon, the proprietor, who had taken his place behind the counter to welcome incoming guests, and took the pen which he handed her.

For a brief moment she hesitated as the point of the pen was held over the registration card, and Ray Fieldon, knowing from long experience the meaning of that momentary hesitation, cocked a quizzical eyebrow.

Then the woman wrote in a firm, clear handwriting, "Marion Chandler, Crystal City."

Ray Fieldon became sociably communicative. "Lived there long?" he asked, indicating the place she had marked as her residence.

Ray Fieldon kept that particular approach as an ace up his sleeve for women who registered under assumed names. Expe-rience had taught him that there would be one of two responses. Either she would flush and become confused, or she would look at him with cold, haughty eyes and take refuge behind a mantle of dignity.

But this woman merely gave him a frank, disarming smile. Her steady hazel eyes showed no trace of embarrassment. She said, in a voice which was neither too rapid nor yet too hesitant, "Oh, I don't really live there. It just happens to be my legal residence." She went on calmly, "I'd like something with a bath, if you have it. I expect to be here only long enough to make arrangements to pack in to the Middle Fork country. Perhaps you know of some packer who is thoroughly reliable."

Fieldon met those steady, friendly eyes and acknowledged defeat. "Well, now, ma'am, the best packer hereabouts is Hank Lucas. As a matter of fact, he's starting in to the Middle Fork country tomorrow, taking a party in—a man and a woman. Just a chance you might get to team up with them— that is, if it was agreeable all around. You could save a lot of expense that way. Of course, you'd want to be sure that you were going to get along all right together. You might speak to Hank."

She hesitated.

"The other two are due to arrive some time this afternoon," Fieldon went on. "Man by the name of Dewitt and a woman named Adrian. If you want, I'll speak to Hank."

"I wish you would."

"He's in town and I—"

Fieldon broke off as the door was pushed open, and Marion Chandler turned to survey the loose-jointed figure in tight- fitting Levi's and high-heeled boots that entered the lobby.

"This is Hank now," Fieldon said in an undertone.

"Seen anything of my dudes?" Hank called out.

"They weren't on the stage. Guess they're coming by car," Fieldon answered. "Come on over here, Hank."

Hank gave the young woman a swift, comprehensive glance, then swept off the sweat-stained sombrero to disclose dark curly hair, carelessly tumbled about his head. Fieldon performed introductions and explained the reason for them.

"Well, now," Hank said, "it's all right with me, but you'd better sort of get acquainted with those other people this after-noon, see how you like them, and then sound them out. It's sort of embarrassing if you get out with people you don't like. You can get cabin fever awful easy." "Cabin fever?" she asked, her voice and eyes showing amusement as she took in Hank's picturesque sincerity.

"That's right. We call it cabin fever hereabouts. Two people get snowed in a cabin all winter. Nothing to do but look at each other. Pretty quick they get completely fed up, then little things begin to irritate them, and first thing you know they're feuding. Outsiders get the same feeling sometimes when they're out on a camping trip with people they don't like."

"Oh, I'm quite sure I'd get along with these other people."

"Well, they'd ought to get along with you," Hank said, with open admiration. "What you going in for? Fishing? Or hunt-ing? Or . . . ?"

She gave him the same smile she had given Fieldon when he had interrogated her about her residence. "I'm an amateur photographer. I want pictures of the Middle Fork country, and I'm particularly anxious to get pictures of people—people who have lived in that country for a long time. The old residents, you know. Types. Character studies."

"Well, I guess that could be arranged," Hank said, somewhat dubiously. "The country and the cabins are all right. The people you'd have to approach tactfully."

She smiled. "You'd be surprised to find how tactful I am."

Hank grinned. "Well, those people are due in this afternoon. You can sort of size them up."

"What," she asked, "are they going in for? Hunting? Or fishing?"

Hank said, "Well, now, up in this country people just don't ask questions like that oflhand."

"You asked me."

Hank shifted his weight from one foot to the other. His eyes were pools of amusement. "Well, now, ma'am, you've just got to make allowances for me. I'm different."

"I'm quite good at making allowances for people," she said. "I've had lots of experience."

"That'll come in handy," Hank told her.

"And since you're the one who asks the questions," she went

on, "suppose you find out from the other people whether it's all right for me to join the party."

"After you've had a chance to look 'em over and see if it's okay by you," Hank said.

"I am quite sure it will be all right as far as I'm concerned."

"You got a sleeping bag, ma'am?"

"Down at the express office—that is, it should be. I sent in most of my stuff by express a few days ago."

"I'll look it up," Ray Fieldon said, and then he asked casually, "Sent from Crystal City?"

She met his eyes. "No," she said. "Merely inquire for a package sent to Marion Chandler, care of the express office, if you will, please. . . ."

Some time early the next afternoon Marion Chandler looked back on the long line of horses from her position near the head of the string. The packs, covered with white tarpaulins and swaying slightly from side to side with the motion of the horses, made the pack string look like some huge centipede, each white pack a joint in the body.

The trail itself was hardly two feet wide in most places, a narrow ribbon cut out of the wall of the canyon. Below, a stream tumbled pell-mell over rocks and sunken logs, hurling itself around bends, lashing itself into spumes of white foam in its brawling haste.

High above towered the walls of the canyon, granite pinnacles, in places seeming to overhang the trail. Farther back were more gradual slopes, splashed here and there with dark patches of pine, until, finally, far, far up were the serrated ridges of the highest peaks.

The trail wound interminably. Starting from a ranch located in a mountain "cove," it had followed a stream through timbered meadows where the cold lay in a still, hushed blanket of frosty white. Now the sun was high, and the trail had dropped sharply down the canyon. At these lower elevations, the sun poured heat into the narrow defile.

Hank Lucas led the procession. Behind him was Corliss Adrian, whom Marion judged to be about twenty-seven. She had chestnut hair, brown eyes, and was wrapped in an aura of subdued tragedy. It was a pose which well suited her, a pose which Marion felt would make men refer to her as "brave."

Marion, watching her ride, knew that she was a tenderfoot. Her back was too stiff. She insisted on having her stirrups too short, the effect being to throw her weight far back in the saddle. Twice lately she had asked casually of Hank Lucas, "I wonder how far we've gone since we started." And Marion knew from the vague but cheerful manner in which Lucas answered the question that this was a routine with him, the first indication that a "dude" was becoming fatigued. But Corliss was being brave and uncomplaining, riding in silence.

Back of Marion Chandler, James A. Dewitt, a thick, jolly individual in his middle thirties, frankly hung to the horn of the Western saddle when he came to the bad places in the trail. Behind him rode Sam Eaton, who was doing the cooking for the party, a quiet, middle-aged man who said nothing except when absolutely necessary.

Back of him the packhorses came swaying along, and bring-ing up the rear was Howard Kenney, the assistant wrangler, a young man who had recently been discharged from the Army and whose eyes contained a touch of sadness. Marion had no-ticed that when he became jovial he seemed to make a conscious attempt at wrenching his mind away from past memories, an attempt which would almost invariably be followed by a period of detachment during which his tired gray eyes would focus on the distance.

Now he was riding along, accepting the cloud of dust kicked up by the packtrain as part of the day's work, from time to time swinging over in the saddle to scoop up a rock of convenient throwing size from the side of the mountain. Then he would stand in his stirrups and chuck the rock with unerring accuracy to prod along whatever packhorse at the moment seemed to be inclined to hold back.

Hank Lucas, at the head of the procession, rode with long stirrups and a loose back. His sweat-stained sombrero was far back on his head, and he kept up a steady succession of cowboy songs. At times he would raise his voice so that those behind him could hear the rollicking words of a fast-moving verse or two, then suddenly he would invoke a veil of self-imposed censorship which left the words mere garbled sounds.

At midafternoon the long string of horses wound its way down the canyon and debouched on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

The trail followed the river for a couple of miles, then wound around a rocky point where the way had been blasted out of sheer granite, and here the trail was barely wide enough to give a horse footing. On the left there was a drop of some, two hundred feet, and so narrow was the way that the overhang of the saddle and the bulge of the horse's side completely obscured the edge of the trail. Sitting erect in the saddle and looking down, one saw only two hundred feet of empty space under the left stirrup, with glinting water below.

Dewitt, grabbing his saddle horn and staring with fear-wid- ened eyes at the trail, still managed to preserve a semblance of his joviality. "I say up there, Hank," he yelled.

Hank swung loosely in the saddle, looking back inquiringly over his left shoulder, pivoting in such a way that he didn't disturb his balance in the least. His face showed only courteous and casual interest.

"What would you do if you met another pack coming from the opposite direction in a place like this?" Dewitt asked ap-prehensively.

"Well," Hank drawled, after an interval, "you couldn't turn around, and you couldn't pass. Reckon the only thing to do would be to decide which outfit was the least valuable and shoot it."

"Please don't joke about it," Corliss Adrian said, in a low, throaty voice.

Hank's grin was infectious. "Ma'am," he said, "I'm not jok-ing. That was my answer. S'pose you try and figure out some other way."

He included them in a lazy grin and said, "Only about ten minutes to camp," and swung back around in the saddle. Al-most immediately his voice rose in a plaintive melody.

His ten minutes turned out to be exactly twenty-three minutes, as Marion Chandler noted from her wristwatch. Then they made camp in a grassy meadow, with pines furnishing a welcome shade. The packs came off in record time. The cook had a fire going, and even before the wranglers had finished hobbling the horses and putting a cowbell on the leader, Marion could smell the aroma of cooking.

James Dewitt came over to stand by her. "You seem to have stood the trip quite well."

"It wasn't bad."

"You do quite a bit of riding."

"What makes you think that?"

"I don't know—the way you were sitting on the horse. You seemed to be a part of him. You aren't tired?"

"Not particularly."

"I'm all in," he confessed. "Too much weight to pack around. I'm going to get busy and take off twenty or twenty- five pounds. Been threatening to do it for a year. Perhaps this will be a good chance to start."

Marion nodded toward the campfire. "Wait until that gets down to coals and you begin to smell the broiling steaks."

"Steaks?"

"That's what Sammy told me. Steaks the first night out."

Dewitt made an exaggerated motion of wiping the back of his hand across his lips. "Guess I'll start my diet tomorrow," he said. "So you're taking pictures?"

"That's right."

"Have a contract with some magazine?"

"No, I'm free-lancing."

"Rather an expensive trip just for free-lancing, isn't it?"

"I don't think so," she said coolly.

"Pardon me." He grinned. "I'm always sticking my neck out, saying things that happen to crop into my mind. Did you get any pictures along the trail?"

"No, I'm going to wait a day or two before I do much pho-tography. It's always better to play it that way. The scenery's better, and the first day's journey is usually the longest and the hardest on the stock and the people. Packers don't like to have you hold up the string the first day out."

"You sound like a veteran."

She laughed gaily and said, "I've been listening to Hank."

"But you have been on quite a few camping trips?"

"Oh, yes."

It was plain that Pewitt wanted to ask more questions, but her manner held his curiosity in check.

Corliss Adrian came over to join them. "Wasn't it perfectly delightful?" she asked, but her voice was flat with fatigue.

Hank Lucas, having finished hobbling the horses, pulled a can of fruit juice from one of the kyacks, jabbed a hunting knife through the top of the can, and produced paper cups and a bottle. He mixed the ingredients with haste.

"Now, this here," he announced, "is a little mountain tonic. A couple of these has the effect of loosening the sore muscles, removing kinks from the back, and whetting the appetite. How about it, Mr. Dewitt? Want me to get out your fishing tackle so you can catch a few trout before supper?"

Dewitt grabbed the cocktail. "Gosh, no," he said. "All I want is to sprawl out and rest. Where are the sleeping bags?"

Lucas passed the drinks around and tossed off one himself, saying, "Coming right up." And he promptly proceeded to busy himself getting things unpacked.

Marion was grateful for the fatigue that permeated the camp, which she knew had interposed a shield between her and what had apparently been a well-planned course of questioning agreed upon in advance. Dewitt had done his part, but Corliss had been too tired to keep up the mental effort.

As the sun went down in the west, the shadows of the moun-tains on the other side of the stream marched rapidly toward

them. Almost instantly it became cool and, by the time the broiled steaks, potatoes, and salad were on their plates, the sharp tang of the mountain air, plus the effect of the cocktails, had whetted their appetites so that eating was a full-time oc-cupation. And, in an incredibly short time after eating, the food induced a drowsy torpor which made even the most frag-mentary conversation a matter of effort.

The fire crackled cheerfully for a while, then died down, and the circle of darkness which had been waiting just outside the camp moved silently in.

"I'm going to roll in," Marion announced. "Good night, ev-eryone."

James Dewitt sighed and said, "Good night." He arose and started for his sleeping bag. His first two steps were staggering, off-balance attempts to keep himself erect as his cramped muscles for the moment refused to work. A moment later Corliss Adrian had rolled in, and Marion, hurriedly disrobing, slid down into her sleeping bag. She looked over at the campfire, where Hank Lucas, Sam Eaton, and Howard Kenney were gathered in a little group silhouetted against the glowing embers.

She wondered sleepily at the subject of their conference and determined that she would lie awake to watch them, suddenly suspicious of the intense attitude of concentration.

She doubled the light pillow of her sleeping bag to prop her head up so she could see them more clearly and closed her eyes momentarily when they began to smart, to shut out the light of the campfire. Her consciousness was almost instantly sucked down into an abyss of warm comfort. . . .

When she wakened there was the feel of dawn in the air. The stars over the tops of the big pines had receded into a sky which was taking on just a faint suggestion of greenish-blue color.

She knew that it was cold outside because she could feel a tingling at the tip of her nose, but the envelope of the sleeping bag was filled with warm down and she was too comfortable to

w mk

even move. She lay there in a state halfway between sleeping and waking, listening to the sounds of the purling river and the stir of activity around camp. Time ceased to exist.

There was color in the pine trees now. The stars had disap-peared and the sky had taken on a distinctly bluish tint. She heard the sound of distant shouts, and then the clanging of the bell on the lead horse became suddenly a hysterical clamor. Hoofs pounded and, startled, she raised herself on an elbow, to see the horses coming into camp, driven along by Howard Kenney, who was riding bareback, letting out cowboy yells at intervals. Sleep was effectively banished.

Marion struggled into her clothes, splashed ice-cold water on her face, and felt that surge of vitality which comes with the dawn when one has been sleeping on the ground in the open.

With an appetite sharpened by the fresh air, she watched the cook bring flapjacks to a golden brown and put them on her plate together with slices of crisp, meaty bacon. A thick slab of country butter melted to run down the sides of the hot cakes and mingle with the maple syrup. There was clear, strong coffee in a huge agateware cup.

She ate with zest and then walked down to the edge of the river, where Dewitt was just finishing putting his trout rod together. He had made a few preliminary casts to soften up his leader and now, with a skilled wrist motion, sent a fly winging out in a long cast.

"Hello," he said, grinning amiably. "You're looking mighty fit this morning." Using his left hand to pull the line through the guides, he brought the fly around the edge of a little ripple, then across a straight stretch of swift current.

"Feeling like a million dollars," she said.

A trout suddenly flashed up out of the water, struck at the fly, missed, and then went sulking down to the depths of the stream.

"Missed him," Dewitt said. "I was a little too anxious. Whipped the fly right out of his mouth."

Hank Lucas, who had joined them without being observed, said, in his peculiar drawling voice, "No need to get discour- aged. There's lots of 'em in here. If you want to fish an hour or so while we're getting the packs on, you'll have more fish than you can carry. .· . . Haven't seen Mrs. Adrian, have you?"

Dewitt snapped in the line and made another cast. "No. Is she up?" he asked, his eyes glued to the fly.

"She's up, all right. Took a little walk upstream. She hasn't come back for breakfast."

Dewitt said abruptly, "You say she's gone?"

"That's right. Seems to have taken a walk," Lucas said, "but there aren't any tracks on the trail. I thought I'd take a look along the stream here, and then I saw you fishing."

Lucas strolled more or less aimlessly up the stream edge be-tween the rocks, then said suddenly, "Here's where she went."

Marion had to look twice to see the track. Then it appeared to be only a faint discoloration of the ground. But, some twenty yards farther on, Lucas, who had kept moving on ahead, uncovered another fresh track—this time made in damp sand and distinctly visible.

Dewitt abruptly lost interest in the fishing and snapped in his line. "Guess I'd better follow her."

"Keep on fishing if you want," Hank said. "I'll go on up. . . . Maybe you'd like to take a walk," he said to Marion, and then added, with a grin, "In case she's taking a swim, you can go on ahead and tell her she'll have to hurry if she wants breakfast. We've got to get the packs on."

Dewitt hesitated. "Really, I should come" he said.

"Why?" Hank asked, and then added, "I can probably follow her trail as well as you can."

Dewitt grinned. "Oh, well, if you put it that way," he said.

He resumed his fishing, and Hank and Marion moved slowly upstream.

Almos.t instantly the lazy smile left Hank's eyes. His manner became tense and businesslike. "Any idea where she might have gone?" he asked.

"No. I woke up shortly before dawn and then dozed again. I didn't hear her move." "She was in her sleeping bag when Kenney and I took out after the horses. You haven't any idea what she might be after?"

"She might have wanted to bathe."

"Water's pretty cold," Hank said, and then added abruptly, "You know what she's in here for?"

"She wants to find her husband?" Marion ventured.

"That's right. . . . You're a photographer?"

"Yes."

Hank said, "Here's a copy of a picture. It ain't too clear because it isn't a print, but it's a picture of a picture. What do you make of it?" He handed her one of the postcard reproductions Tom Morton had made.

"What," Marion asked, studying the photograph, "do you want to know about it?"

"Anything you can tell about the picture. Just from looking at it."

"Lots of things," Marion said, laughing.

"What, for instance?"

"To begin with," she said, "the picture was probably taken with a 3-A folding Kodak with a rapid rectilinear lens. It was taken in the middle of the day."

"How do you figure that?"

"Well," she said, "despite the fact that the lens was stopped 'way down, there's still a certain blurring at the extreme corners and there's a peculiar diffused warmth to the shadows. You get that with a rapid rectilinear lens. The anastigmatic lens haw a tendency to cut things wire-sharp. But there isn't quite the warmth in the shadows and—"

"Wait a minute. What do you mean the lens was stopped 'way down?" Hank asked.

She said, "When the diaphragm shutter of a lens is wide open, the speed is increased but there's very little depth to the field. In other words, if you take a fairly long focal-length lens such as is necessary to cover a postcard-size film, and set it, say, at twenty-five feet and leave it wide open, things beyond thirty feet or so will be out of focus, and things closer than twenty feet will be out of focus. I've forgotten the exact table, but that will serve as an illustration. On the other hand, if the lens is stopped 'way down, virtually everything will be in focus. The stopping down gives a depth of field. Objects only eight or ten feet away will be fairly sharp, and so will things in the distance."

"And this lens was stopped down?"

"This lens, was stopped down," Marion said. "Moreover, see the little white fog down there in the corner? Well, that's a light leak, and probably came from a little hole in the bellows of the camera. If it had been careless winding on the spool, you'd have seen a little different type of leak and . . . Here's Mrs. Adrian now."

Corliss Adrian, trim and fresh, stepped out from behind a rock. Apparently she was engaged in watching the other side of the stream very intently. But she seemed to watch it a little too long, and her surprise on finally seeing Hank and Marion seemed a little too pronounced.

Marion started to say, "I think she's been watching us," but then abruptly changed her mind and remained silent.

Hank said good-naturedly, but still with a certain rebuke in his voice, "This here is a searching party out to locate the lost tenderfoot."

"Don't ever worry about me," Corliss Adrian said, with a quick, nervous laugh. "I decided to get up and see if I couldn't see a deer."

"See anything?"

"I saw some does and fawns and one young buck!'' "Breakfast is just about over," Hank said. "We're trying to get things cleaned up so we can get away."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll rush right on back. Hank—" "Yes?"

"Do you see that canyon up there, the one with the peculiarly shaped rock up near the top of the ridge?" "Uh-huh."

"What place is that?"

"Broken Leg Canyon."

"1 wonder if we could go up there. It looks like marvelous country."

"That's just about where I'm aiming to go," Hank said.

"Oh, that's wonderful."

"You see," Hank explained, "when Bill showed me the picture of that cabin, there wasn't anything on it that gave a definite clue to where it was, but somehow, from the way the ground looked, I had a hunch the thing might be up Broken Leg Canyon. I thought we'd take a look up there. Provided it's okay with Miss Chandler here."

"Oh, I think that would be wonderful," Marion said eagerly. "It looks very inviting. That rock would really make a magnficent photograph."

"Then that's all settled," Corliss said.

Marion wondered if Hank Lucas had detected a certain note of smug satisfaction in Corliss's voice. She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, but he seemed thoroughly engrossed in picking his way over stream-worn boulders.

Dewitt was landing a fish as they walked past and was too engrossed in what he was doing to even see them. The cook was plainly angry, and Howard Kenney, faced with the job of getting the packsaddles on the horses, was indignantly silent.

Corliss Adrian moved over to a place by the fire, apparently heedless of the taciturn disapproval of the cook. Lucas started getting packsaddles on the horses, and Marion moved over to the two men. "Is there anything I can do?" she asked Kenney.

"Not a thing," Kenney said, smiling. "You might get your personal things all together and the air out of your air mattress. No use trying to break any records getting a start, though. The Queen of Sheba is going to take her time."

Marion glanced over to where Corliss Adrian was settling herself in a folding chair at the camp table with every evidence of preparing to enjoy a leisurely breakfast.

"Not much we can do until we get the kitchen ready to load," Kenney explained. "Perhaps I'd better help you get the

air out of your mattress." He walked over to the beds, unloos-ened the valves, and slowly rolled up the sleeping bags, letting the air escape.

"You like this life, don't you?" Marion asked.

"Love it."

"But it's hard work, isn't it?"

"Oh, off and on. But it's nice work. It's the only way I can afford to hang around the country as much as I'd like to. Sort of a vacation."

"I see."

"Sleep all right last night?" he asked.

"Fine."

"You would. You were taking the ride all right yesterday. You're used to Western-saddle trail riding."

She became conscious of the curious interrogation in his eyes and knew suddenly that this was no casual questioning, but a well-planned examination which probably linked in with the three-way conference at the campfire last night.

"Yes, I've done some mountain riding," she said, and calmly turned away and began packing her personal belongings.

Thereafter Marion avoided Howard Kenney. . . .

When camp had been broken and all but the last two horses loaded, Hank Lucas approached his dudes.

"Kenney can finish throwing the packs, with the help of the cook, and bring the string along," Lucas said. "I want to move on ahead and pick out a good campsite. If you folks would like to come along with me, you can save a little time."

"That'll be fine," Marion said.

"Wait a minute," Dewitt interposed cautiously. "How do you propose to make this extra time? As I see it, the packtrain will be ready to start in ten or fifteen minutes."

"There's quite a bit of smooth trail ahead," Hank said. "We can put the horses in a trot."

"In a trot!" Corliss Adrian exclaimed in dismay.

Hank grinned. "Don't appeal to you, eh?"

"If it makes any difference to the others, I'll be only too glad to go along," Corliss said with dignity, "but if it doesn't, I think I'd prefer to walk my horse. However, you're in charge, and I'll do as you say."

Dewitt stepped into the situation. "You two go right ahead," he said. "Take all the time you want. We'll come along with the pack string. After all, we've got all day. Our time isn't that valuable."

Lucas glanced at Marion.

She nodded.

"Okay. Let's go," Lucas said. He took his chaps off the horn of the saddle, buckled them around his waist, fastened the snaps under his legs, put on his spurs, and swung into the saddle.

They started out at a brisk trot. There was a wide valley to skirt where another stream came into the Middle Fork. It took a detour of nearly three miles to bring them back opposite the mouth of the canyon on the other side of the stream. The horses splashed through a ford, followed relatively level going for three-quarters of a mile, and then started an abrupt climb.

Marion regarded the sweating horses during one of the brief rest periods which enabled the animals to catch a few quick breaths.

"Aren't you pushing the horses a bit fast?" she asked.

Hank tilted back his sombrero. "To tell you the truth, I wasn't anxious to have those other two along. I don't want to disappoint them, in case I don't find what I'm looking for."

"What are you looking for?"

"The cabin shown in that photograph."

"You think you know where it is?"

"Well, now," Hank said, shifting sideways in the saddle and cocking his right knee over the horn of the saddle, "I can best answer that by saying that I know the places where it ain't."

She laughed.

"You see," Hank went on, seriously enough, "that cabin is up on a ridge somewhere. I know just about when it must have been built. That is, I know it was built after the last real heavy winter—on account of the down timber. I know the general nature of the country it's in. And, well, I've been doing a little listening around.

"A year ago a chap who could be this man they're looking for showed up here and had a partner with him. They went up in this country somewhere and sort of disappeared. Everyone thinks they went out the other way through the White Cliff country. Had one packhorse between them. I talked with the chap who sold 'em the horse One of the fellows was a pretty good outdoors man the other was a rank tenderfoot. Now, maybe there's a cabin up in here somewhere that was built and then abandoned."

"Do you know where it is?"

Hank shook his head.

Marion surveyed the tumbled waste of wild, rugged country "How in the world do you ever expect to find it in this wilderness if you don't know where it is?"

"Same way the people who lived in it found it," Hank said. "Take along in the winter when trails were pretty well snowed over, they had to have something to guide them when they wanted to go home."

"How do you mean?"

Hank motioned toward the trees along the trail. "See those little marks?"

"Oh, you mean the blazes?"

"That's right. Now, you see, along this trail you've got a long blaze and underneath it two short ones. They're pretty well grown over and a person that didn't know what he was looking for wouldn't find them. They show up plain enough to a woodsman."

"And you think these men blazed a trail in to their cabin?"

"Must have."

"How much farther?"

Hank grinned. "I'm darned if I know. I'm just looking for blazes."

He swung around in the saddle and dropped his right foot back in the stirrup. "Okay," he said. "Let's go."

» «

From little natural meadows which existed here and there along the trail, Marion could see out over an awe-inspiring expanse of country—mile on mile of tumbled mountain peaks, deep, shadow-filled canyons, high, jagged, snow-covered crests.

Hank Lucas looked back at her and grinned. "Lots of it, ain't there?"

"I'll say there is."

Abruptly he reined in his horse.

"What is it?"

"There's an elk," he said.

"Where? I don't see him."

"Over there. Wait a minute, he's going to bugle to the horses."

From the shadows came a clear, flutelife whistle which started on a low note, ran to a higher note, then dropped through two lower notes into final silence.

"Oh, how beautiful!" Marion exclaimed.

"First time you ever heard an elk bugle?"

Her eyes were glistening. She nodded her head.

"He doesn't like the horses," Lucas said. "Thinks they're a couple of bull elks which may be rivals. This country is pretty wild. He don't know much about men. There he is over there in the shadows under that tree."

She caught sight of him then, a huge, antlered animal standing in the shadows. Abruptly he pawed the ground, lowered his head, gave a series of short, sharp, barking challenges.

"He looks as though he's getting ready to attack," Marion said, alarmed.

"He is." Hank grinned. "But he'll get our scent before he does any damage, find out we ain't other elks, and beat it." He turned to her sharply. "I don't notice you trying to photograph him. I haven't seen you photograph anything so far. If you didn't come in here to take pictures, why did you come in here?"

She said, "If I told you, would you keep it to yourself?"

"I might."

The elk took two quick steps forward, then suddenly caught their wind, sniffed, whirled abruptly, and was gone, like some great, Pitting cloud shadow, his big hulk dissolving in the trees.

Marion's speech was quick and nervous. "I came in here to find my brother. I think he's the one who was with Frank Adrian. That's why I was willing to go along with these other two."

Hank spun his horse so he was facing her. "Okay," he said quietly, "suppose you tell me about him."

"I don't know too much about it," she said. "The last letter I had from Harry was last summer. He was at Twin Falls then. There was an ad in the paper stating that a man who was going into the hills for his health wanted a partner who was fully familiar with camping, trapping, and mining. This man was willing to give a guarantee, in addition to a half interest in any mines or pelts. It sounded good. Harry wrote me he'd answered the ad and got the job, that he liked his partner a lot, and they were going to head into the Middle Fork country. That's the last I heard from him."

"He write you very often?"

"Only once every two or three months," she said. "But he's close to me. He's my older brother."

"He give you any address?" Hank asked.

"Yes, the county seat back there."

"You write to him there?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"The letters came back. I don't think Harry would have gone away and—well, he wouldn't have gone this long without writing unless something had happened. I've been wondering whether that ad was on the up and up."

"I see," Hank said. "Your brother's name Harry Chandler?"

"Harry Benton," she said. "My name is Marion Chandler Benton. I didn't want to use the last name until I knew more about things. I thought perhaps if Harry had got in any trouble I might be able to help him. He's impulsive and a little wild."

Hank regarded her shrewdly. "Ever been in trouble before?"

"Yes. You see, he's—well, he's impulsive."

"And what's the reason you didn't tell Corliss Adrian about this?"

"Because if he's got into trouble," Marion said, "I can do more for him if people don't know who I am. I don't want her to know. I'm telling you because you know that I'm in here for something other than photographs, and I want , you to know what it is so—well, so you'll know."

"So I'll quit trying to find out?" Hank asked with a grin.

"Something like that."

"This brother of yours is sort of the black sheep of the family?"

"Yes."

"But he's your favorite, just the same?"

"Yes."

"Want to tell me about the other time he was in trouble?"

"No."

Hank gently touched the tip of his spur to his horse. "Okay," he said. "Let's go."

They rode on for another half mile, passing now through big-game country. Twice they saw deer standing watching them. Once they heard crashes in the forest as a big bull elk stampeded his cows out of their way, then turned, himself, to bugle a challenge.

"Usually the deer don't hang around so much in the elk country," Hank said, "but there seem to be a lot of them in here. I— What's this?" He stopped abruptly.

"I don't see anything."

Hank pointed to a tree.

"Oh, yes, I see it now. It's a blaze, a different blaze from this trail blaze. Looks as though the person who made it didn't want it to be too prominent."

Hank indicated other trees bearing all but imperceptible scars. "Want to take a look?" he asked.

She nodded.

Hank turned his horse down the ridge, following the faint trail.

"Shouldn't you leave a note or something, in case the pack string catches up with us?"

"They'll see our tracks," Hank said.

They skirted wide patches of down timber, lost the trail twice on such detours, but eventually picked it up again. Then, without warning, they came to a little clearing and a cabin.

Hank swung down off his horse and dropped the reins to the ground.

Marion looked at the cabin for a moment, then flung herself out of the saddle. "It's the same cabin that's in the picture," she said. "The picture was taken from over there."

"Let's take a look around."

They crossed the little opening and Hank pushed the cabin door open.

Marion stood at his side, looking over the one-room structure.

There was a wood stove of rough iron, two bunks, a table, a rude bench, a row of boxes which had been nailed to the wall so as to form a cupboard and in which were a few dishes, knives, and forks. A frying pan hung from a nail, and there was a large stewpan face down on the stove. The cabin had a dirt floor, but it was cleaner than any abandoned cabin Marion had ever seen. Yet it held that characteristic musty smell which indicated it had been some time since there had been a fire in the stove or since men had slept on the two bunks.

On the table was a kerosene lamp partially filled with kero-sene.

"Well," Hank said, "I guess this is it. You say your brother's an old-time camper?"

"That's right. He's done quite a good deal of trapping and prospecting. He didn't like too much civilization."

Hank nodded. He took off his hat and scratched the hair around his temples.

"What is it?" she asked. "Anything?" "No," Hank said, "I guess it's okay. Let's get back to the trail. We'll want to camp right around here somewhere."

"We could camp in the flat here and use the cabin, couldn't we?"

"Better not," Hank said shortly. "Let's go back to the trail and— Hello, what's this?"

Hank was looking at the three boxes which had been nailed to the side of the cabin.

"What is it? I don't see anything."

Hank said, "That piece of paper. Looks like the edge of an envelope."

"Oh, yes, I see it now."

Hank moved over. His thumb and forefinger gripped the corner of an envelope which had been pushed into a small space between the boxes and the log wall of the cabin.

Marion laughed nervously. "It must be a letter he put there and forgot to mail."

Hank turned the envelope over and said, "It's addressed 'To Whoever Finds This Letter.' The envelope isn't sealed. Let's just take a look."

Hank pulled the flap of the envelope and took out the single sheet of paper, which was covered on both sides with fine pen- and-ink writing. He spread it out on the table.

Marion, standing at his shoulder, read the letter with him

My name is Frank Adrian, although until the last few days there was a great deal 1 couldn't remember about myself. I am married to Corliss Lathan Adrian, and I will put her address at the bottom of this letter, so the finder may notify her in the event it becomes necessary.

I have been subject to fits of amnesia. Some time ago I had an attack which sent me wandering away from home. For a while I didn't know who I was, then I could remember only a part of my life. There was a hiatus following an automobile accident in which I received a blow on the head. However, recently my mind has cleared, and I know now who I am.

For some time I have been engaged in a partnership with a

peculiar chap named Harry Benton, a man who is an experi-enced woodsman, packer, and prospector. We came up here to this cabin to do some prospecting until the weather got cold and then do some trapping.

I have heard something about cabin fever, that peculiar malady which grips two persons who are forced into constant association with each other, until finally they become so thoroughly annoyed and irritated that there is a species of insanity generated.

I had never thought that could happen to me.

I am all right, but my partner, Harry Benton, has developed a bad case of cabin fever. He hates me with an insane, bitter hatred. I think the man is crazy.

A few days ago we had a quarrel over a matter so trivial it seemed absurd to me, but I can see that Benton has become absolutely furious and is brooding over it. I am going to try to leave here, but I am still pretty much of a tenderfoot and it will be a hard trip for me. I feel certain that if Benton finds I have run out on him he will track me down and kill me. Therefore I want to get enough of a head start so he can't catch up with me.

If the worst should come to the worst and anything should happen, will the finder of this letter please notify my wife.

The letter was signed "Frank Adrian," and below that was the address of his wife.

Hank looked up at Marion Benton.

"Why, how absolutely absurd!" she exclaimed. "The man must be insane. Harry never was a bit like that."

"Cabin fever is a peculiar thing," Hank said. "I've seen people that were just as nice as could be. They'd be swell camp- mates until they got cabin fever and—well, it's a kind of insanity. You can't—"

"Oh, bosh and nonsense! Harry has camped with people all over the country. He's been out in the hills as much as you have. It's absolutely absurd to think of Harry flying off the handle that way."

"Of course, a tenderfoot is something of a trial to Hve with," Hank pointed out. "There are times when just wrangling them gets you to the point where—"

"But, Hank, that's absolutely foolish. I don't know why this man wrote that letter, but it's absurd."

"Well," Hank said, "let's go on back and stop the packtrain. We'll camp around here somewhere and take a look at the cabin. Everything seems to be all nice and shipshape."

Marion nodded, too stunned and angry to engage in much conversation.

Hank looked carefully around the place for a while, then said, "Oh—oh, what's this?"

"What?"

Hank turned to one of the walls. Down near the floor were reddish-brown stains which had evidently spattered against the wood in pear-shaped drops, then had dried.

Marion looked at the stains, then raised her eyes to Hank. "Hank, is it—?"

Hank nodded and said, "I guess we'd better close up the place and go get the others. . . ."

It was well along in the afternoon when Marion Chandler Benton, Corliss Adrian, James Dewitt, and Hank Lucas returned to the cabin. In the meantime they had found a camping place and left Kenney and the cook to unpack the horses and make camp. Lucas had briefly described what they had found and had shown the others the letter. Marion had announced to one and all that she was Harry Benton's sister and had ridiculed the letter.

James Dewitt had accepted the announcement of her rela-tionship to Frank Adrian's partner without surprise. He had, however, promptly taken sides with Mrs. Adrian.

"You don't suppose Frank Adrian wrote that letter just for fun, do you?" he said.

"He was a tenderfoot," Marion said. "He wasn't accustomed to living out in the hills with anyone. Harry was probably a little taciturn, and Frank took it for cabin fever."

"Well, if nothing happened to him, and it was all a mistake," Dewitt said, "why hasn't his wife heard from him?"

"Because he has amnesia. He's had another lapse of memory."

"Could be," Dewitt said in a tone that failed to show any conviction. "Since we're taking ofT the masks, I may as well tell you I'm a sergeant detective in charge of the missing persons department of— Well, here, take a look at my credentials, all of you."

"Please let's get started," Corliss Adrian said. "I don't want to make any trouble for anyone. All I want is to find Frank. Please let's go."

Now, as they arrived at the cabin, Dewitt, inspecting the reddish-brown stains on the wall, promptly took charge. "Those stains are blood," he said. "Now, let's be careful not to disturb anything in the cabin. Hank, show me exactly where it was you found the letter."

Hank Lucas replaced the letter behind the boxes. "Right here," he said. "It was sticking out just about like this." "As much as that?" "That's right. Just about like this." "I see. Let's take a look at this stove." Hank said, "Doesn't seem to be any firewood or kindling here, but I can go out and get some dry wood and in just a few minutes have this whole cabin heated up."

"Definitely not," Dewitt said. "We'll leave everything exactly as it is, except that we'll look through these ashes down below the grate here."

Dewitt found a piece of flat tin from which he made a scoop and began shoveling the ashes. After the second shovelful, he gave an exclamation.

There were four or five badly charred buttons in the ashes. "I guess you folks better get out," Dewitt said to Corliss and Marion. "It's beginning to look bad. You girls wait outside. We don't want any evidence obliterated. You'd better wait over there by the door, Hank. This is a case where too many cooks spoil the broth. I know exactly what to do and how to do it. Remember, this is right down my alley."

Corliss and Marion went outside. Corliss was crying, Mar- ion indignant. Hank strolled off down the trail, which he said probably led to a spring.

There followed a period of waiting in an atmosphere of hostility. Marion and Corliss sat on a fallen log, maintaining a distance of some eight feet, both apparently intent upon the scenery, both under emotional tension.

Then Hank Lucas came walking back rather hurriedly. He talked briefly to Dewitt. The men took off, carrying with them a shovel which had been standing in the corner of the cabin by the stove. Corliss apparently failed to appreciate the significance of Hank's errand, but Marian waited, watching with fear-strained eyes as the men walked rapidly down the path toward the spring.

When they returned, some twenty minutes later, Marion knew what had happened merely from their attitudes. Dewitt, bustling in his efficiency, was now very definitely in charge. Hank, coming along behind him carrying the shovel, had a dejected droop to his shoulders.

Dewitt said, "Corliss, we want you."

She came to him, and Dewitt engaged in low-voiced conver-sation, glancing almost surreptitiously at Marion. Marion saw Corliss catch her breath, heard her half scream then they were gone down the trail, leaving Marion seated on the log very much alone. They were back within ten minutes. The cold hostility of Dewitt's eyes confirmed her worst fears.

He said, "It's my duty to inform you, Miss Benton, that we have discovered the body of Frank Adrian. The evidence is unmistakable that he was shot in the back of the head with a high-powered rifle, firing a soft-nosed bullet. In view of other evidence I've found, there can be no question but what your brother was the murderer."

Marion was on her feet. "How dare you say any such thing! You are making a superficial appraisal of circumstantial evidence. My brother may have been living with him, but he wasn't the only man in these mountains. After all, Adrian was mentally deranged. He—"

"Shot himself in the back of the head with a rifle?" Dewitt asked sarcastically.

"Well, I guess there are other people in these mountains. My brother and Adrian might have found a rich mine and—"

"That," Dewitt said coldly, "is something you can try to prove to a jury aler we've caught your brother."

"Or," Marion went on desperately, "that body could be someone else."

"The identification is absolute," Dewitt said. "Not only is there an identification by Corliss despite the state of the body due to the time it's been in a shallow grave, but there are certain means of identification which were given me by Corliss before she ever came in here. There's no question about the identity of the body. And, as far as my duty is concerned, it's plain. Your brother is a fugitive from justice. He has a head start—too big a heaa start. But there seems to be no question as to the trail he took in going out, and I am going to ride over that trail. There's a telephone at the other end of it."

Hank Lucas was downright apologetic when he moved up to talk with Marion after Dewitt had gone over to comfort Corliss. "There's another way out of this country," he said. "It's only about fifteen miles of trail from here and gets you to an automobile road. There's a ranch there and a telephone. Dewitt feels he should get in there right away, and I've got to guide him. Corliss is pretty much all in, but she doesn't want to remain here."

"Hank, tell me," Marion said tearfully. "I don't trust this man on the evidence. He's a prejudiced, overbearing, bully- ing-"

"He's a pretty good detective," Hank Lucas said. "As far as the evidence he's uncovered is concerned, Marion, there are half a dozen clues that tell the whole story."

"And the body's that of Frank Adrian?"

"Doesn't seem to be any question about that. . . . We don't feel that it's right for you to hang around the cabin the way things are. Don't you want to go back to camp and stay there with Kenney and the cook?"

"I don't. I want to get out of this country. I want to get away," Marion said, feeling her voice rise almost to the point of hysteria. "I want to talk with someone who's got some sense. I want to find the sheriff of this county."

"That's right," Lucas said soothingly. "The sheriff is a square shooter, but there's no use kidding ourselves. So far the evidence is dead open and shut."

"If they accuse Harry of this I'll get the best lawyer money can buy," Marion stormed indignantly.

"Now, don't go making any mistake on that," Hank said. "That's where you really could get in bad. Don't go get any high-priced city lawyer and bring him in here to this county. You take the run-of-the-mill country lawyer up here, and he understands cabin fever. The jury understands cabin fever, and the lawyer understands the jury—"

"We're wasting time," Dewitt interrupted. "We haven't too much daylight left. We'll have to ride fast. Think it will be necessary to take a packhorse with our sleeping bags?"

"Nope," Hank said. "There's a ranger station there and a ranch. We can get them to put us up for the night, if we have to. But I think probably we can get an auto to drive out from Boise and pick us up."

"Let's get started," Dewitt said.

"This is going to be tough," Hank warned.

Dewitt was grim. "We can take it. This is part of the day's work—my work. . . ."

It wasn't until shortly after dark that the four horsemen rounded the last turn of a trail that had seemed absolutely in-terminable and saw an oblong of light, heard the sound of a radio.

Corliss Adrian was virtually in a state of collapse. Dewitt, holding grimly to the saddle horn, lurched along like a sack of meal. Marion, accustomed as she was to a proper seat in the saddle, was unspeakably weary. Only Hank Lucas seemed perfectly at ease and untired.

Once in the ranger station, however, Dewitt's spirits soon re- vived. He was in his element, putting through telephone calls, requisitioning cars, assuming command. And Marion had to admit reluctantly that as an executive he showed to advantage.

While they were waiting for the car to arrive from Boise, Ted Meeker, the rancher who lived about half a mile away and who had arrived in a state of excitement after quite frankly having listened over the party phone, fell into conversation with Hank.

"How's the stock coming?" Hank asked.

"Pretty good. There certainly is lots of feed in this meadow during about eight months of the year."

"How are the horses?"

"Fine."

"Got any you want to sell?"

Meeker grinned. "None you'd want to buy."

"Haven't had a stray in here, have you?"

"Say, there is, for a fact," Meeker said. "When the horses came in to hay last winter, there was a black that came in. Big, powerful horse. I haven't seen him before, and I don't know who owns him. There's no brand."

"White left front foot? Star on his forehead?" Hank asked, rolling a cigarette deftly with one hand.

"That's right."

"Back in good shape?" Hank asked casually.

"It is now," Meeker said and laughed. "Wasn't quite so good when he came in."

"Maybe fifteen years old? Sort of swaybacked?" Lucas asked.

"Don't tell me you own him?"

"Nope. But I know who does."

"Well, by this time the owner's got a feed bill."

Marion listened absentmindedly to this conversation, not quite understanding its implications. As the sister of a murderer she found herself in the position of being apart from the little group. She knew, in fact, that Dewitt had even disliked having her in the room where she could listen to the telephone instructions which had gdne out pertaining to the apprehension of Harry Benton. It was a welcome relief, therefore, when she heard the sound of an automobile motor and realized that they would be on the move again. . . .

The drive to the county seat was a long one, and it was nearly noon when the party finally reported to Bill Catlin. They were all exhausted.

The old country sheriff eyed them curiously. His manner was calm, unhurried, and deliberate. "Looks to me like you've been takin' it pretty hard," he said to Dewitt. "Maybe you'd better roll in for a while before we do anything else."

Dewitt squared his shoulders. "I can't sleep when there are a lot of things to be done. I won't rest until I know every wheel has been set in motion."

"Well, now, we can take over from here," the sheriff assured him philosophically.

Dewitt shook his head. "I don't want to appear conceited, but it just happens I'm here. I'm going to keep on the job."

Bill Catlin said, somewhat whimsically, "Guess us country boys wouldn't do so well in the city."

Dewitt smiled.

"On the other hand," Catlin said, "we manage to get by out here in our country."

"I hope," Dewitt said, "that the time will come when we have a city-trained man available in every county in the United States."

"Well, now, that just might be a good thing," Bill said.

Dewitt's voice was rasping from fatigue "Well, let's finish up this case if you don't mind."

"You mean finish it up right now?"

"That's right. Arrest one of the guilty parties."

"Who?"

"Use your head," Dewitt said impatiently. "Reconstruct the crime. Put two and two together."

"Just what do you mean by that?"

"Hank Lucas tells me that he knows that packhorse, has known it for some time. He knows the man who sold it to Adrian."

Catlin nodded.

"That packhorse showed up down by the ranger station after snowfall last year when the horses came in to get fed. He'd been feeding out on the range before then."

Again Catlin nodded.

"Surely you can see what happened," Dewitt went on, trying to hold back his impatience. "There in the cabin we found some buttons in the stove, meaning that some garments had been burned up. We didn't find a single thing in the line of wearing apparel, blankets, personal possessions, or anything. Just a few dishes and odds and ends of that sort. In other words, the cabin had been fixed up very carefully so that any person who happened to stumble onto it wouldn't think there was anything out of the ordinary. It would appear that the trappers who had been in it had taken their furs at the end of the winter season and gone on out to sell them."

"So Hank was telling me," the sheriff said.

"All right," Dewitt said. "Benton killed Frank Adrian. He loaded all the stuff on the packhorse and walked out to the ranch by the ranger station, where he struck the highway. He unpacked the horse and turned him loose."

"Then what?" Catlin asked.

"Then he vanished."

"Seems like he did, for a fact," the sheriff said.

"Well," Dewitt said impatiently, "my God, do I have to rub your nose in it? Figure out what happened. That wasn't any cabin-fever killing. That was willful, premeditated murder. Adrian had quite a roll of cash on him. Benton got out with it. What happened? He got to that road and unpacked his pack- horse. He didn't just evaporate into thin air. Someone met him with an automobile. It had to be someone who was in on the play, someone who could keep an eye on things and wait until people were about ready to launch an investigation, and then contrive to show up and be very solicitous about her 'dear brother.' In other words, it's just as plain as the nose on your face that Marion Benton was her brother's accomplice and the murder of Frank Adrian was premeditated."

Marion jumped to her feet. "How dare you say anything like that?"

"Now, just a minute, ma'am," Bill Catlin said authoritatively. "If you wouldn't mind just sitting down and keeping quiet, I'll ask you questions when I get around to it. But right now we're having an official investigation, and Mr. Dewitt is doing the talking."

Marion subsided into the chair.

Corliss Adrian said to the sheriff, "He could have hitchhiked in. don't think Miss Benton was in on it."

"Don't be silly, Corliss," Dewitt said. "I can appreciate your desire to be charitable. Miss Benton has imposed on all of us with her superb job of acting, but I'm looking at the thing from the standpoint of a trained investigator."

Marion started to say something, but the sheriff motioned her to silence.

"Figure it out," Dewitt went on. "That murder was committed sometime before snow, sometime before the ground froze. The men had gone in there planning to prospect and then to trap. They had taken in enough supplies to last them through the winter, probably all of the supplies they could possibly load on one packhorse. There must have been quite a bit of stuff. Benton had to load all that and pack it out. Then he had to get rid of it.

"I've asked particularly about traffic along that road. Except during hunting season, there's virtually no one who uses it other than the ranger and the chap who has the ranch there, plus the man who delivers the mail.

"I try to do things thoroughly. I've talked on the telephone to the mailman, and I asked him particularly if he remembered picking up anyone with a lot of camp equipment."

"Couldn't he have hidden the camp equipment?" Corliss asked.

"Too dangerous," Dewitt said shortly. "There must have been a lot of provisions which had to be disposed of some way —bacon, flour, sugar, coffee. Then there were blankets and traps. To simply dump that stuff out somewhere would be taking too many chances. The minute anyone found that cache of stuff, he'd know something had happened."

Sheriff Catlin nodded approvingly. "You're doing right well," he said.

"I think you'll find," Dewitt told him, with some dignity, "that the principles of investigating a crime both in the city and in the country are the same. In the country you have, perhaps, a wider area, which tends to increase the difficulty of finding clues. But, on the other hand, you have a smaller population, which makes the job of finding what you want much more simple."

"Yes, 1 reckon you're right," the sheriff said. "You've done some good reasoning there. I guess he couldn't hitchhike. I guess he had to have someone meet him."

"And you can see what that means," Dewitt went on. "It means deliberate murder. The crime had to be committed ac-cording to a certain schedule. The person with the car had to be there on a certain date. It's your county, Sheriff, and I don't want to dictate, but if it comes to a showdown, I'm going to have to. I want Miss Benton arrested as one of the two persons who murdered Frank Adrian. I want her arrested now."

The sheriff turned to Marion Benton. "Miss Benton, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a question or two. I know it's sort of embarrassing, but you'll help things along a bit if you'll just talk frankly. . . . Your brother is sort of wild, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Done quite a lot of camping and packing?"

"A lot."

"Lived in the hills a good part of his life?"

"Yes."

"Pretty good prospector?"

"Yes."

"Packer and trapper?"

"Yes."

"Hank tells me you sit a horse pretty good. Take it you've done quite a bit of riding in the mountains, haven't you?"

"Some."

"With your brother?"

"Yes."

"Your brother have anyone along to do the packing or anything when he took those trips?"

"No, of course not. He likes to do it."

The sheriff turned back to Dewitt. "Now, then, Hank tells me," he said, "that when you found the cabin there was a shovel on the inside of the cabin by the stove, some blood spots on one of the walls, but no other blood spots anywhere. There were dishes in the little cupboard, dishes that had been washed and put away. There wasn't any firewood or kindling inside the cabin. The stove had ashes that hadn't been cleaned out, and there were some buttons in the ashes. There was this here note that had been stuck behind the boxes that formed the cupboard, and there wasn't a single, solitary thing left in the cabin to show that, of the two men who occupied that cabin, one of them had stayed behind. The packhorse was found at the end of the trail, some skinned-up places on his back."

Dewitt nodded, then said somewhat impatiently, "I've gone all over that before. Hang it, Sheriff, I've given that cabin my personal attention. I've seen the evidence."

"Well, you've looked at the cabin," the sheriff said. "Some-times we don't always see what we look at. . . . Now, let's see. Mrs. Adrian, you registered over here at the hotel and left some baggage, I believe, to be picked up when you came out of the mountains."

"That's right. Hank told me to make the load as light as I could, just take the things I really needed to get along with."

"Hank tells me you ain't done much mountain riding."

"This is my first trip."

"Now, then," the sheriff said to Dewitt, "I think you've got it right. This here murderer had to have somebody meet him.

That means it was a premeditated crime. It means he had an accomplice. It means the thing was worked out according to schedule."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Dewitt snapped. "It means it was premeditated murder."

"That's right. But a couple of things you've sort of overlooked. Let's do a little thinking out loud. Take that photographic postcard, for instance." "What about it?" "Notice the shadows?"

"The shadows! What have the shadows to do with the mur-der of Frank Adrian?"

"They're pretty short shadows," Catlin said. "The picture must have been taken right at noon, but, even so, shadows don't get that short up here in Idaho except right during the summer months. Now, Tom Morton, the photographer who printed that picture, put it on papier that he says must have been used up by the last part of July. The shadows say it was July. The ptostcard says it was October. How you going to reconcile the shadows and—"

Dewitt laughed. "I'm not even going to try. Frank Adrian didn't disappear until September."

Bill Catlin nodded and went on, calmly, "And this here pic-ture was taken with a folding camera that has a little light leak in the bellows. That's how come this little patch of white fog is down here in the corner. Now, I know I'm just sort of boring you, but there's one more thing you'd ought to consider. Remember when that packhorse showed up, his back had been rubbed raw and then healed over?"

Dewitt said, "For heaven's sake, are you crazy? don't care about the damn packhorse."

"Well, now," the sheriff went on, "you'd ought to know the mountains, if you're going to work in 'em. Of course, in packing a lot of dude duffel, even a good man will sometimes get sore backs on one or two of the pack string. You just can't help that. But when you're packing just one horse, and when you're leading him on foot, which is generally a slower proposition than working from horseback, a man that knew anything about packing wouldn't get a sore back on his packhorse.

"Now, another thing. The murderer tried to leave the cabin so that anybody that happened to stumble onto it wouldn't think there was anything wrong. Everything would seem to be all nice and shipshape, just the way the trappers would have left it at the close of the winter season.

"But up here in this country we have a custom that's an un-written law. When a man leaves a cabin, he always leaves dry stovewood and kindling in by the stove. That's so that if he happens to come back in a rainstorm or a blizzard, he's got dry wood to start the fire with. And if somebody else happens to come in looking for shelter, there's always dry wood with which to build a fire.

"Now, I don't want to bore you by telling you all these local customs, but this one in particular is pretty rigidly enforced. Now do you get it?"

"Get what?" Dewitt asked.

"There were two men in that cabin. One of them was a ten-derfoot, a city dude. The other was a woodsman. One of them killed the other and pulled out. Whoever it was that slicked the cabin up and washed the dishes and made it look as though everything was the way two trappers had left it certainly wasn't the murdered man it was the guy who did the killing."

"Naturally," Dewitt said.

"And," Bill Catlin pointed out, "in this case, the man who did that was the tenderfoot."

The idea hit Dewitt suddenly and hard. "But look here," he said. "His wife identified the body. There was a ring on—"

"Sure, sure, she 'identified the body,' " Catlin said. "Naturally, the murderer saw to it that the right ring was there to be identified. But she'd have made a positive identification in any event. You remember what you said about the crime having to be premeditated and someone having to be at the right place to meet the packhorse on a definite date."

Corliss Adrian pushed her chair back from the table. "Are

you," she demanded angrily, "trying to insinuate that I—?"

"Now, just take it easy, ma'am," the sheriff said. "I'm trying to straighten Dewitt out on the facts of this here case. . . . One other thing, Dewitt. Hank tells me this note was sticking out from behind the cupboard. I asked him if a good mountain man would have seen it easy, and he said over the telephone, 'My God, Bill, even a dude would have seen it.' So there you are. You see, Adrian was just a little too anxious. He wanted to be certain that note would be found.

"Well, now, when Hank telephoned me about this here crime and the things he found, I did a lot of thinking, and then I got hold of the judge and got me a search warrant so I could search the baggage that Mrs. Adrian had left there in the hotel. And, sure enough, there was a 3-A folding camera with a rapid rectilinear lens. And when we took it into Tom Morton's darkroom and put an electric light bulb inside the bellows, you could see that one little pinhole in the bellows just as plain as day. . . .

"Now, don't try to make any breaks, Mrs. Adrian. You're all tired out from having a long ride and a long trip. And, even if you tried to run away in this country, you couldn't get anywhere. It isn't like just ducking outdoors in a city and trying to get lost in a crowd. You've got to stay right here and take your medicine. One thing about it, our menfolks up here are sort of chivalrous to women and, while they won't turn you loose, they may make you sort of an accessory or something that wouldn't quite take the extreme penalty."

"You're crazy," she said. "You've got nothing on me. This is some bucolic travesty of justice."

"I'm afraid we've got quite a bit on you," the sheriff said. "You and your husband fixed this up quite a while ago. Both of you prospected around last summer and found that cabin. It had been abandoned, but it was pretty new and in good shape. You even took that picture when you found the cabin, a month or two before youi husband pulled his disappearing act. You've played it pretty foxy. You'd taken out the insurance policies years ago. It was all as slick as a wet pavement."

"Wait a minute," Dewitt said. "Let me handle this, Corliss. . . . Sheriff, your own reasoning defeats itself."

"How come?"

"You admit that the man who left that cabin last tried to fix it up so it would look as though the trappers had moved out for the winter."

"That's what Hank told me," the sheriff said.

"Yet Hank also told you that this note was left in such a prominent place that anyone, even a dude, couldn't have failed to see it."

The sheriff chuckled. "Well, now, that's an interesting thing," he said. "That's the clue that struck me the minute Hank told me about it over the telephone. So I did a little thinking."

"I haven't seen any evidence of it yet," Dewitt said, now openly hostile.

"Well," the sheriff said, "you have to think that one over a little bit. Have to sort of put yourself in the shoes of the murderer, and then you get it."

"I'm afraid," Dewitt said, with deep sarcasm, "my mental processes are too far inferior to yours to get these fine points. Suppose you explain it to me."

"Well, now," the sheriff said, "just put yourself in the shoes of the murderer. You don't want the body to be discovered until after it's pretty hard to make a positive identification. You've buried the body in a shallow grave. You want it to stay there and decompose for just about so long. Then you're ready to have the thing discovered. Now, then, if it's discovered too soon, you're sunk. Well, you can figure out what that means, Dewitt."

"What does it mean?"

"It means that the murderer, or someone that was in cahoots with him, had to come back to that cabin and put that note there where it would be discovered at just about the right time. The idea was to get someone to go to that cabin, and when he reached the cabin he had to find the note and the body. So the person who put the note there wanted to be sure ii'd be found. Now, Adrian could have put it there all right, just the way he says. But, if Benton had killed him. he'd have seen that note and naturally burnt it up. A mountain man wouldn't have overlooked that note—not in a million years.

"So when Hank told me about the note and about the way it had been found, I asked him about the color of the ink. Seems like the ink was still sort of blue. Now, you take ink that way and, as I understand it, there's some sort of a chemical in it that unites with oxygen and turns black after it oxidizes, and that's what gives you the permanent color in ink. But until that chemical has had a chance to oxidize, they put a blue dye in the ink, so you can see what's been written down. That's why ink will be sort of blue for a while and then, after it gets old, it'll turn black. You take a man that's accustomed to judging colors pretty careful, and he can come pretty close to telling whether pen-writing is old or new. Hank said this looked pretty new to him.

"Well, that started me thinking some more, and so I asked Hank over the phone how Mrs. Adrian stood the trip. Did she ride pretty good in a saddle? And he said she was just like most of the dudes, riding with short stirrups, gripping with her knees, and pushing back against the cantle of the saddle. So I figure she'd hardly be the kind that could make a quick round trip to the cabin to plant a note in there, and maybe slash her finger and leave some bloodstains around. And, the way I sized it up, there was only one other person who could have done it.

"Well, I had a pretty good description of Frank Adrian, thanks to the stuff my friend, Ed Harvel, had sent on. So I sort of figured, if he sneaked into that cabin and put a note in there, he'd have had to go in through the ranger station or down through the Middle Fork. But it would have been a pretty hard trip, because he was a tenderfoot too. And it didn't look like they'd take chances having three people in on it. However, they're bringing in a few planes lately, and there's a forest service emergency landing field only about five miles from the cabin now.

"So I got busy on the telephone and rang up the cities around that have charter air service, asking them about whether they took a man of a certain description into that landing field within the last month or so. And, sure enough, I struck pay dirt."

"What did you find?" Dewitt asked, interested now despite himself.

"Well," the sheriff said, "a man chartering an airplane has to give a lot of information about himself. Of course, this man was using an assumed name. He's working in a garage now. Probably thought he was all good and safe and nobody was going to bother him. Well, I telephoned down to my friend, the sheriff, there, and we picked him up.

"And when I'd picked him up, I talked with him over the phone and told him about how his wife had already collected the insurance money and run away with a playboy, name of Gridley. That was sort of reading her mind a little in advance. May have been sort of a mean trick, but it worked like a charm. This here Adrian has a quick temper, and seems like he really blew up and started talking fast. He'd evidently heard something about this Gridley chap.

"So now, Mrs. Adrian, I hate to do it, but I've just got to give you lodging in the jail. I've sent over to the hotel and had your bags taken over, and, while the matron will be watching you to see what you take out, you can get some clean clothes and— My gosh!" Bill Catlin said, his voice edged with sympathy. "Darned if she ain't fainted. Hank, will you wet a towel over there at the washstand, and let's see if we can't snap her out of it? And there's a bottle of whiskey in that locker.

"And I reckon you can use a drink too, Miss Benton. It's too bad about your brother, but, after all, it's better that way than to have him turn out to be a murderer.

"And as far as Ed Harvel's concerned, Dewitt, I rang him up and told him we'd got the case solved and the murderer in jail.

"And now, if you folks feel like it, we'll get Mrs. Adrian dis-posed of, and then I guess we can have a little something to 192 ERLE STANLEY GARDNER

eat. I've been up pretty nearly all night working on this thing, and I ain't as young as I used to be. When I go without sleep, I've got to have lots of food to keep the energy up.

"I told Harvel you'd done a fine job of detective work up here, Dewitt. And Harvel was proud as punch. 'Course I told him that us country fellows had to put a few little finishing touches on, here and there. Just because it's our county, you know, and the voters sort of look to us. to keep things in line. But I told him you'd done most of the work.

"Okay, Hank, let's get the matron over here, and then we'll go down and see what we can find. Deer season's open now, and a friend sent me a loin of venison. I took it down to Ted Collins' place and told him to have things all ready to give us a good venison feed when we showed up.

"Oh, yes, another thing. The insurance companies that had the policies on Adrian's life, in favor of his wife, are pretty grateful. Ed Harvel tells me they want to make sort of a contribution. So I guess, come to figure it all out, we done a pretty good day's work. Whatta ya think, boys?"

The End.