al buttons. A block away on Center Street, a heavy truck roared
through the business section. The bell of a switch engine tolled near
the freight depot, and a small dog barked suddenly at the obscured sky.

"I am promoting you to captain. You will replace Hanks, whom I am
demoting," the figure on the truck announced.

"Chief Grindstaff?" Whedbee wondered.

The chief of police glared down at the patrolman. He hooked a bright
metal globe to the stop light, lifted it in one hand, and jumped,
landing lightly on the pavement. "Put this in the mobile unit," he said.
"The truck, I evil."

"Huh? Sure, chief," Whedbee said. He tucked his night stick under his
arm and prepared to accept a heavy load. Tensed muscles almost felled
him when the signal proved to weigh not more than one pound.

Chief Grindstaff opened the doors in the rear of the truck, releasing a
faint odor of stale bread. The truck was empty. Whedbee deposited the
almost weightless burden. The chief looked him in the eye. "I am
promoting you to captain," he repeated. "You will replace Hanks, whom I
am demoting."

"Thanks, chief!" Whedbee exalted. "You know Hanks didn't treat me fair
that time I--"

"Yes, I know all about that," the chief interposed. "Go bring the
postage box and place it in the truck."

"The which? Oh, you mean the mailbox!" Whedbee walked across the street
to the square green box with the rounded metal top. Another of the
globes had been attached to the mailbox, and the legs had been burned
loose from the concrete sidewalk. Confidently, Whedbee lifted the light
object, carried it to the truck, and deposited it inside.

"Bleachers there," said Chief Grindstaff.

"What you say, chief?"

"Stands there. No, stand there."

Patrolman Whedbee stood by the back of the truck. Chief Grindstaff
placed a device like an atomizer under Whedbee's nose and released the
spray.

* * * * *

Miss Betsy Tapp awoke after not more than one hour of fitful sleep. The
door to the garage apartment shook under the tattoo of a heavy fist.
Miss Tapp's heart thudded somewhere inside her thirty-eight-inch bosom.
She lay rigid in darkness penetrated only by the glimmer of a distant
street light.

The knocking ceased. Boards creaked on the platform outside the door. A
face appeared at the window, a face in complete shadow except for two
eyes that glowed with greenish light.

Miss Tapp, unaware of the disarray of her nightgown, sa