l just the same. We
can keep it quiet, and have him treated secretly by Grays. That'll stop
publicity."

He rapped with heavy, red knuckles on the note which Chichester had laid
on the conference table. "This is a fraud, a thin-air idea of some small
shot to get money out of us."

He turned to the telephone to call Doctor Grays' suite again for a later
report on Weems' condition. The other two bent near to listen.

A breath of air came in the open window. It stirred the note on the
table, partially unfolded it.

"... disaster and horror shall be the chief, though uninvited, guests at
your opening unless you comply with my request. Mathew Weems shall be
only the first if you do not signify by one a. m. whether or not you
will meet my demand...."

The note closed as the breeze died, flipped open again so that the
signature showed, flipped shut once more.

The signature was: Doctor Satan!

_2. The Living Dead_

At two in the morning, two hours and a half after the odd seizure of
Mathew Weems, and while Gest and Kroner and Chichester were in Doctor
Grays' suite anxiously looking at the stricken man, eight people were in
the sleek, small roulette room of the Blue Bay Hotel on the fourteenth
floor.

The eight, four men and four women, were absorbed by the wheel. Their
bets were scattered over the numbered board, and some of the bets were
high.

The croupier, with all bets placed, spun the little ivory ball into the
already spinning wheel, and all watched. At the door, a woman stood. She
was tall, slender but voluptuously proportioned, with a face like a pale
flower on her long, graceful throat. Madame Sin.

She came into the room with a little smile on her red, red lips. In her
tapering fingers was held a gold-link purse. She did not open this to
buy chips, simply walked to the table. There, with a smile, two men
moved over a little to make a place for her.

"Thank you so much," she acknowledged the move. Her voice was as
exotically attractive as the rest of her; low, clear, a little throaty.
"I am merely going to watch a little while, however. I do not intend to
play."

The wheel stopped. The ball came to rest in the slot marked nineteen.
But the attention of those at the table was divided between it and the
woman who was outrageous enough, or had sense of humor enough, to call
herself Madame Sin. In the men's eyes was admiration. In the women's
eyes was the wariness that always appears when another