, immediately began the preparation of a second.

Reggie sipped his drink and relaxed.

For several moments he stood at the bar, lazily contented, his brain
slowed to about one revolution per minute. Finally he happened to glance
toward the end of the bar and he noticed a small, dark, narrow-eyed man
watching him closely.

Reggie smiled uncertainly and returned to his drink. The dark man at the
end of the bar was the only other customer and Reggie knew that he was
not a member of the club, for he had never seen him before in his life.

Reggie finished his drink and when the bartender set another before him
he glanced again toward the end of the bar. The little dark man was
still there, regarding him, it seemed, with a steady fixed stare.

Reggie coughed nervously and gulped his drink. There was something in
the dark little man's beady-eyed gaze that disturbed him. He had another
quick drink and peeked from the corner of his eye at the little dark
man.

There was something sinister about the chap, he felt sure. Reggie was
the owner of an extremely lurid imagination and now, warmed by the glow
of alcohol, he began to envision all sorts of wild possibilities.

After his fourth drink he was certain that the man was an Axis agent.
Just why an Axis agent would be staring at him he had no idea, but he
still felt sure the man was a Nazi.

* * * * *

Reggie finished his drink and set the glass on the bar. Then he casually
sauntered toward the door. A few paces from the room's only exit, he
paused and under the pretense of inspecting a faded sports print on the
wall, sneaked a quick glance at the dark little man.

The dark little man was still staring at him with narrowed, shaded eyes.

Reggie yawned ostentatiously and inched closer to the door. He was going
to make a break for it, but it would have to be fast and clever. His
heart was pounding with more gusto than usual and there were bright
spots of excitement in his pale cheeks. This new role of dodging the
Gestapo appealed enormously to his comic strip sense of melodrama.

Headlines popped before his mind's eye.

REGGIE VAN FIDDLER MAKES ESCAPE!

From what he was going to escape he wasn't quite sure, but he felt that
the details would be in the body of the news story. Headlines didn't
tell everything, did they?

Within a foot of the door he turned casually and took one last look at
the little man who was staring so intently