Cartwright tilted a chair and dumped a thing that had been sleeping there onto the floor.
"Your place, Mr. West," he said.
The thing uncoiled itself and glared at West with an eye of fishy hatred, purred with lusty venom and slithered out of sight.
Across the table Louis Nevin apologized. "The damn things keep sneaking through all the time. I suppose, Mr. West, you have trouble with them, too."
"We tried rat traps," said Cartwright, "but they were too smart for that. So we get along with them the best we can."
West laughed to cover momentary confusion, but he found Nevin's eyes upon him.
"Annabelle," he said, "is the only one that ever bothered me."
"You're lucky," Nevin told him. "They get to be pests. There is one of them that insists on sleeping with me."
"Where's Belden?" Cartwright asked.
"He ate early," explained Nevin. "Said there were a few things he wanted to get done. Asked to be excused."