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perhaps a trip to Europe.”

“All right,” she said hotly, “they sent for me. They paid me money, big money, and they gave me the protection of influence, big influence. I’m not going to Europe. I’m going to South America. Do you know what that means?”

“Sure I know what it means,” I said. “You’re making an affidavit and then you’re getting on a boat, where, for a time at least, you’ll be out of the jurisdiction of the court.

They can only question you by interrogations forwarded through the American Consulate. You’ll—”

“It isn’t that,” she said. “You’re looking at it from the other person’s viewpoint. I am looking at it from my viewpoint.

“Do you know what it means when a girl comes to the city and gets on her own? She doesn’t have any difficulty meeting a lot of boys — playboys. That’s all they want to do, play.

“At the start you think you’d like a little playing yourself. You’re on the loose. For the first time in your life you’re grown up, with all that it means. You’re an individual, completely free and unhampered. You have an apartment, you are your own boss, you’re making your own living. You don’t have to ask anybody for anything. Or, that’s what you think. You feel there’s lots of time to settle down whenever you get ready. You have a job and you’re getting a regular paycheck. You can buy clothes and you can do what you want when you want.

“It’s a fine sensation for a while and then the sugar coating wears off and you begin to taste the bitter that’s underneath.

“You’re not independent. You’re a cog in the economic and social machine. You can get just so high and no higher. If you want to play you can get acquainted with a lot of playboys. If you want anything else you’re stymied.

“After a while you begin to think about security. You begin to think about a home, about children, about — about being respectable. You want to have some one man whom you can love and respect, to whom you can devote your life. You want to have kids and watch them grow up.

You want to have a husband and a home.

“You don’t meet anybody who wants to be a husband or to make a home. You’re tagged as a playgirl. You’ve been having fun and there’s a tag on you. The homely little bookkeeper marries the bashful guy in the filing- department. You don’t get proposals. You get propositions. The headwaiters all know you and make a fuss over you — You’re tagged.

“The married men at the office all make passes at you in their spare time. The boss slaps your fanny, tells you an off-color joke or two, and thinks he’s being devilish. You meet a lot of guys who look all right on the surface and who swear they’re bachelors on the loose. After the fifth drink they pull a wallet out of their pocket and show you pictures of the wife and kids.”

“I’m going on a boat, Donald. No one’s going to know anything about me or about my background. I’ll have good clothes. I’ll be chic and interesting. I’ll sit in a deck chair and have all day to look over the passengers. I’ll spot the ones who are eligible.”

“And throw your hooks into the first one you can get?” I asked.

“I’m not that anxious,” she said, “and I’m not that low, but if I find someone who interests me and find that I’m interesting him, I’ll have an opportunity to talk with him, to find out what kind of a chap he is, what he wants out of life. I’ll really get acquainted.

“The way it is now, somebody introduces me to a goodlooking fellow. He wants to take me to dinner. I rush home and take a shower, put on a party dress and war paint. We go out to dinner. He shows what he wants and what he expects inside of the first ten minutes. From then on it’s the same old routine and it turns out he’s a buyer from Los Angeles who has a wife and two kids. He’s crazy about his family but he thinks he’s a wolf, and I’m supposed to ride along.

“I’d like to spend an afternoon with a man sometime. I’d like to visit and get acquainted with new people. I’d like to go ashore in Rio de Janeiro and prowl through the shops with some interesting man who wasn’t thinking in terms of making your acquaintance, getting a pass to first base, stealing second, and crossing the home plate, all within two hours.”

I said, “You’ve been reading the steamship ads; some- body’s handed you a bunch of folders with pictures of a girl and a fellow outlined against a path of moonlight in tropical waters, with pictures of happy couples dancing to the rhythm of romantic music. You—”

“Don’t, Donald,” she said, laughing. “You’re taking all the joy out of it.”

There was a catch in her laugh. I turned to look at her. Her eyes were filled with tears.

I said, “You came here, Millie. You got in with a carefree bunch. Your friends are that type. All right, so you’re tagged. But why not go to a new place, get a job, make new friends?”

“How you talk!” she interrupted. “I’d have to give up everything I’ve worked for. I’d start out on a starvation salary and I’d die of loneliness.

“I need action, Donald. I want to get out and circulate. I want to see people. I crave action and variety. I’m no stick-in-the-mud. I’m no stay-at-home. I want to see good shows, listen to good music, dance at the best night spots. I want luxury.”

“You can’t have all that unless you have the connections — or money.”

“I can if I travel first-class.”

I said, “It’s a swell air castle, Millie, but you can’t get away with it.”

“Don’t tell me I can’t get away with it.”

“You’ll wind up facing a charge of perjury.”

“Don’t throw cold water, Donald. I’ve made a date with fortune. I’m going to keep it. Lots of times in my life I’ve been tempted not to do the things I wanted to do because of things that conceivably could happen. I’ve always found out that lots of things happened, but none of the things I was afraid would happen. If you don’t do something you want to do you very definitely haven’t done it. That’s final and complete and you’ll probably regret it. If you do what you want to do, you may get into a mess, but getting into the mess and getting out of the mess is better than shutting yourself up in a closet and hiding from life. Donald, I’m going through with it. I’m leaving for Rio.”

“When?” I asked.

She smiled. “The when and the how are secrets I’m not supposed to discuss, but I’m going and you’d be surprised if you knew how soon.”

“Okay,” I told her. “It’s your funeral.”

“Wrong,” she said. “It’s my wedding.”

“Send me an invitation, will you?”

“I sure will, Donald — Donald?”

“What?”

“Are you married?”

There was a wistful half-smile on her lips.

“No,” I said, and opened the door.

“I knew that would do it,” she said as I stepped out into the corridor.

I went to the Western Union Office and sent Elsie Brand another wire collect.

DISREGARD ALL CRIMES EXCEPT MURDER. STAKES ARE TOO BIG FOR ANYTHING SMALLER WIRE REPLY RUSH.

Chapter Ten

I had a bowl of chili and went to the telegraph office.

A wire was waiting for me.NO MURDERS ACTUALLY COMMITTED BUT ONE THREATENED IN THE OFFICE. YOU HAVE OF COURSE READ ABOUT MAURINE. COULD THIS BE THE ANSWER OR IS THAT TOO SIMPLE? LOVE.

ELSIE.

I was putting the message in my pocket when the operator said, “Wait a minute, Mr. Lam, here’s another one coming in for you. It’s longer.”

I sat around and waited while one of the operators took tape from a Teletype and pasted it on a message.