esponsibilities. And it
occurred to me that you might be willing to let me invest some of
the--"

I didn't even let him finish. I had him out of there so fast, we
didn't even have a chance to say good-by to Greco. And all that stuff
about demons and hot-and-cold water and so on, it all went out of my
head as though it had never been. Old Pudge Detweiler! How was _I_ to
know that his father had left him thirty thousand dollars in one
attractive lump of cash!

II

Well, there were business reverses. Due to the reverses, I was forced
to miss the next few reunions. But I had a lot of time to think and
study, in between times at the farm and the shop where we stamped out
license plates for the state.

When I got out, I began looking for El Greco.

I spent six months at it, and I didn't have any luck at all. El Greco
had moved his laboratory and left no forwarding address.

But I wanted to find him. I wanted it so badly, I could taste it,
because I had begun to have some idea of what he was talking about,
and so I kept on looking.

I never did find him, though. He found me.

He came walking in on me in a shabby little hotel room, and I hardly
recognized him, he looked so prosperous and healthy.

"You're looking just great, Greek," I said enthusiastically, seeing it
was true. The years hadn't added a pound or a wrinkle--just the
reverse, in fact.

"You're not looking so bad yourself," he said, and gazed at me
sharply. "Especially for a man not long out of prison."

"Oh." I cleared my throat. "You know about that."

"I heard that Pudge Detweiler prosecuted."

"I see." I got up and began uncluttering a chair. "Well," I said,
"it's certainly good to--How did you find me?"

"Detectives. Money buys a lot of help. I've got a lot of money."

"Oh." I cleared my throat again.

Greco looked at me, nodding thoughtfully to himself. There was one
good thing; maybe he knew about my trouble with Pudge, but he also had
gone out of his way to find me. So _he_ wanted something out of _me_.

He said suddenly, "Virgie, you were a damned fool."

"I was," I admitted honestly. "Worse than you know. But I am no
longer. Greek, old boy, all this stuff you told me about those demons
got me interested. I had plenty of time for reading in prison. You
won't find me as ignorant as I was the last time we talked."

He laughed sourly. "That's a hot one. Four years of college leave you
as ignorant as the day you went in, but a couple