looked familiar. Malone suddenly
remembered to check the time--it was just after nine. The girl stared
at him. She did not look terribly old, but she was large and she had
to be disguised. There seemed to be a lot of teeth running around in
this case, Malone thought, between the burlesque stripper in Las Vegas
and Miss Dental Display here in New York. Nobody, he told himself,
could have collected that many teeth honestly.

"Psychical Research Society," she said. "Oh, Mr. Malone. Good
morning."

"Sir Lewis," Malone said in a rush. "Sir Lewis Carter. I want to talk
to him. Hurry."

"Sir Lewis Carter?" the girl said very slowly. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr.
Malone, but he won't be in at all today."

"Home number," Malone said desperately. "I've got to."

"Well, I can give you that, Mr. Malone," she said, "but it wouldn't do
you any good, really. Because he went away on his vacation and when he
does that he never tells us where. You know? He won't be back for two
or three weeks," she added as an afterthought.

Malone said: "Oog," and thought for less than a second. "Somebody
official," he said. "Got to talk to somebody official. Now."

"Oh, I can't do that either, Mr. Malone," the toothy girl said. "All
of the executives already left on their vacation. They just left a
skeleton force here at the office."

"They're all gone?" Malone said hollowly.

"That's right," the girl said with great cheer. "As a matter of fact,
I'm in charge now. You know?"

"I'm afraid I do," Malone said. "It's very important, though. You
don't have any idea where any of them went?"

"None at all," she said. "I'm sorry, but that's how it is. Maybe if
you were me you'd ask questions, but I just follow orders and those
were my orders. To take over until they get back. You know? They
didn't tell me where and I just didn't ask."

"Great," Malone said. He wanted to shoot himself. Everything was
obvious now--about twenty-four hours too late. And now, they'd all
gone--for two weeks--or for good.

The girl's rancid voice broke in on his thoughts.

"Oh, Mr. Malone," she said. "I'm sorry, but I just remembered they
left a note for you."

"A note?" Malone said. "For me?"

"Sir Lewis said you might call," the girl said, "and he left a
message. If you'll hold on a minute I'll read it."

Malone waited tensely. The girl found a slip of paper, blinked at it
and read:

"My dear Malone, I'm afraid that what you have deduced is quite
correct; and, as yo