ly
ration his reading of comic strips and spy magazines. They were pretty
strong meat if they weren't handled with discretion.

The pleasantly furnished living room of his apartment was shrouded in
late-afternoon semi-darkness and, when he closed and locked the door
behind him, he switched on the lights.

The first thing he saw when he walked into the room was the little dark
man whom he'd seen at the Club and at the bar a few minutes previously.

The dark little man was sitting in a straight chair, his hands resting
on his knees. There was a faint smile on his face as he studied Reggie
with calm, inscrutable eyes.

Reggie staggered back a few steps, clapping one hand hysterically to his
forehead. He couldn't believe his eyes. He had left this man at a bar in
the Loop, but here he was now, sitting calmly and unconcernedly in the
living room of his apartment.

"How did you get in here?" he gasped.

The dark little man stood up and smiled.

"Is that important?" he asked softly. "I am here and that is all that
matters."

Reggie swallowed loudly. There was something disturbing about the calm
ambiguity of the man's statement. He rubbed his damp palms together
nervously.

"Can I get you a drink?" he blurted.

The dark little man shook his head slowly.

Reggie looked at him uneasily, noticing him in detail for the first
time. He was small, hardly more than five feet two and he was slenderly
built. His hair was jet black and it combed straight back from a high,
delicate forehead. He wore severely tailored black clothes that fitted
his small frame without a wrinkle. But his eyes dominated his entire
personality, for they were a cold chilling black, lusterless and
unwinking, as unrevealing as twin diamonds.

Reggie shivered slightly and looked wistfully toward the door of the
apartment. He coughed nervously.

"Sorry to seem rude," he said, laughing weakly, "but I've got to be
toddling off now. It's been nice--er--running into you. There are
magazines on the table, liquor in the ice box, so just make yourself at
home."

He backed cautiously toward the door, smiling nervously.

"Don't wait up for me," he said. "I've--"

"Wait," the dark little man said quietly, "I must talk with you."

"Some other time," Reggie said, feeling behind him for the door knob.
"Awfully rushed just now. Sorry but--"

"Wait!" the little man said again, but this time his voice cracked like
a whip. "Didn't you hear me? I must talk wit