"I'd like to thank your friends personally," I said at last. "Would you give me their names?"
"Sure—but you don't have to thank them."
"I'd like to. I know Mike Boyle, of course—but who was the girl with him?"
"That's Helen Darrow. She's a physics major. She and Mike are going steady now."
I looked surprised. The girl hadn't seemed like the kind who would be majoring in physics. And that fact didn't go along with a co-ed's worshipful admiration of a brawny football star.
"They're a funny couple," Laurie Hendricks said, patting her red hair with graceful fingers. "But sometimes a man and a woman can clink together when you'd least expect it."
I smiled. "And who was your boy friend?"
"My boy fr—oh, you mean Bob. That's Bob Jenkins. But we're just friends, Professor."
I wished that she would ease off a little on the steam she was generating. Her invitation was too open, too sudden. I felt a tickling wariness inside as I looked into the green eyes.
"Did you have something in mind for me, Professor?" she asked, her voice almost purring. "I mean, about the term paper."