Her eyes locked with mine. “I’m afraid,” she said, “you don’t take kindly to suggestion, Donald.” And her voice was the voice of an indulgent mother, censoring a child for a minor misdemeanor.

“I don’t,” I said.

She settled back against the cushions. “Pull down that jump seat, Donald,” she said, “so I can put my feet on it, and don’t be so God damn serious about it. Good night.”

I raised my hat a good ten inches from my head as the taxicab whisked her out into traffic. Then I turned back toward the hotel and bumped into a man who was standing just behind me.

“Sorry,” I said.

“What’s the hurry?” he asked.

“Nothing you’d understand,” I said, and tried to push past him. Another man who had been standing a step behind the first one came up to block my progress. “Take it easy, Pint-Size,” he said.

“Say, what is this?” I asked.

“The chief wants to see you,” one of the men said.

“Well, the chief has nothing on me.”

The first man was tall and slender with a hawk nose and hard eyes. The other had big shoulders, slim hips, and a bull neck. His nose looked as though it had been pushed all over his face, and his right ear had a tendency to cauliflower. He had the gift of gab, and evidently liked to hear his own voice.

“Well, well, well,” he said. “Our friend is pulling the old crook stall. The chief has nothing on me—how about it, buddy? Want to talk with the chief, or shall we tell the chief that you don’t care about co-operating?”

“Co-operating with what?” I asked.

“Answering questions.”

“About what?”

“About Morgan Birks.”

I glanced from one to the other, unostentatiously shifted my position so that I could look over toward the hotel. At any minute now Sandra Birks and her brother might come out. They’d figure I’d led them into a trap or had sold them out. I grinned up into the hard eyes of the tall man, and said, “Sure I’ll come.”

“That’s better. We thought you would,” the bruiser said, and looked anxiously down the street. A big sedan slid out of the stream of traffic, and the men pushed me across to it, one at each arm. They opened the door and popped me in, climbed in beside me, and the tall man said to the driver, “Okay, John. Let’s go.”

We went, but it wasn’t until the car reached the residential section that I began to be suspicious.

“Say, what’s the big idea?” I asked.

Fred said, “Now listen, Pint-Size, we’re going to have to put a bandage over your eyes so you don’t see so much it wouldn’t be healthy. Now, if you’ll just—”