She shivered and her eyes rolled up. Before I could move she had slipped to the floor. I bent over her. She was out cold.

I slipped the Luger back into its holster and picked her up.

She was thin and light, and I could feel her ribs under the silk kimono. I carried her into the study and put her on the settee.

Silence brooded over the house. I wondered if there was anyone else in the place.

I went to the front door, but Davis wasn’t in sight. I found him by the car, his head back and

the bottle to his mouth. I moved silently up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Got you!” I said in a gruff voice.

Davis didn’t jump more than a couple of feet, and hollered, “Yow-ee!” He nearly swallowed the bottle. I took it away from him with one hand, thumped him on his beefy back with the other. After a while he recovered from his choking fit.

“You loon,” he gasped. “You scared me silly.”

“Come on,” I said. “I want you.”