m by--"

Malone said good-bye in a hurry and left. His next stop was the
Xochitl, the Mexican bar on 46th Street. He greeted the bartender
warmly.

"Ah," the bartender told him. "You come back. We look for you."

"Look for me?" Malone said. "You mean you found my notebook?"

"Notesbook?" the bartender said.

"A little black plastic book," Malone said, making motions, "about so
big. And it--"

"Not find," the bartender said. "You lose him?"

"Sure I lost him," Malone said. "I mean _it_. Would I be looking for
it if I hadn't lost it?"

"Who knows?" the bartender said, and shrugged.

"But you said you were looking for me," Malone said. "What about?"

"Oh," the bartender said. "I only say that. Make customer feel good,
think we miss him. Customers like, so we do. What your name?"

"Pizarro," Malone said disgustedly, and went away.

The last stop was Topp's. Well, he had to find the notebook there. It
was the only place the notebook could be. That was logic, and Malone
was proud of it. He walked into Topp's, trying to remember the
bartender's name, and found it just as he walked into the bar.

"Hello, Wally," he said gaily.

The bartender stared at him. "I'm not Wally," he said. "Wally's the
night barman. My name's Ray."

"Oh," Malone said, feeling deflated. "Well, I've come about a
notebook."

"Yes, sir?" Ray said.

"I lost the notebook here yesterday evening, between six and eight. If
you'll just take me to the Lost and Found--"

"One moment, sir," Ray said, and left him standing at the bar, all
alone.

In a few seconds he was back. "I didn't see the notebook myself, sir,"
he said. "But if Wally picked it up, he'd have turned it over to the
maitre d'. Perhaps you'd like to check with him."

"Sure," Malone said. The daytime maitre d' turned out to be a
shortish, heavy-set man with large blue eyes, a silver mane, and a
thin, pencil-line mustache. He was addressed, for no reason Malone was
able to discover, as BeeBee.

Ray introduced them. "This gentleman wants to know about a notebook,"
he told BeeBee.

"Notebook?" BeeBee said.

Malone explained at length. BeeBee nodded in an understanding fashion
for some moments and, when Malone had finished, disappeared in search
of the Lost and Found. He came back rather quickly, with the
disturbing news that no notebook was anywhere in the place.

"It's got to be here," Malone said.

"Well," BeeBee said, "it isn't. Maybe you left it some place else.
Ma