on't think I like Forential any more.

* * * * *

Julia consulted a phone directory for the address of the local F. B. I.
office.

It was four thirty when she arrived, and only one man was still in the
office. He had his feet propped up on the desk; he was smoking a pipe
and reading a law book.

"Yes?" he said, standing up as Julia came forward.

"You better sit back down," she said.

"Well, now.... And who are you?" He said it not unkindly.

Julia gave her name. Gravely he shook hands with her.

"Sit over there, Julia," he said.

When she was seated, he sat down. He bent forward and cleared his
throat.

Oh, dear, how can I start? she thought. How can I ever start? "What,
what was the page you were reading in your book?"

He ignored the question. His eyelids drooped wearily. He took out a
notebook. He unscrewed his pen cap.

"I suppose you want to report on the family next door?" he said.

"Well, as a matter of fact, no," Julia said. "I wanted--" And again her
resolve faltered.

"Yes?" the F.B.I. man asked.

His law book floated from the table behind him and drifted over his
shoulder. It opened itself before his face. The pages riffled.

"What page?" Julia asked intently.

The F.B.I. man took his pipe out of his mouth and looked at it. "Page
one hundred and fifteen," he said.

The book fell open to that page.

The F.B.I. man plucked it out of the air. He felt all around it. He put
it in his lap. His eyelids were no longer weary.

"I think I underestimated you," he said. "I believe I'm going to sit
right here and take down every word you say." He gestured with his pipe.
"Start talking."

Julia spoke slowly. She gave the F.B.I. man all the information she had.
His pen skimmed rapidly, making short hand squiggles over the white
pages of his notebook.

* * * * *

When she had finished, he looked up. He tossed the law book toward the
desk. She caught it and let it down gently, so that it landed without a
sound.

"Julia," the man said, "put yourself in my position. What would you do
if someone came to you with a story like this?"

"I'd send that person to Washington, where she could talk to somebody."

"I'd like a little more proof."

Julia passed her hand through the back of the chair. "I should certainly
be investigated: just on the basis of being able to do that, shouldn't
I?"

The F.B.I. man nodded. "Do that again."

Juli