cleaning-up work till after dinner, and I won't have any buttling
to do till the women get home from church."

"Case Varcek and Dunmore, when they come in; see if either of them is
rod-heavy. Find anything, last night?"

Ritter shook his head. "I searched Varcek's lab, after everybody was in
bed, and I searched the cars in the garage, and a lot of other places. I
didn't find them. Whoever he is, the chances are he has them in his
room."

"Did you look back of the books in the library?" Rand asked. When Ritter
shook his head, he continued: "That's probably where they are. Not that
it makes a whole lot of difference."

"If I'd found them, it'd of given me something to watch; then I'd know
when the fun was going to start." Ritter broke off suddenly. "Yes, sir.
Will you have your coffee now, or later, sir?"

Gladys entered, wearing the blue tailored outfit she had worn to Rand's
office, on Wednesday.

"At ease, at ease," she laughed, dropping into her chair. "Anything new?"

Rand shook his head. "We'll have to wait. I'm expecting some action this
morning; I hope it'll be over before you're home from church."

She looked at him seriously. "Jeff, you're using yourself as
murder-bait," she said. "Aren't you?"

"More or less. He knows I'm onto him. He's pretty sure I haven't any real
proof, yet, but he doesn't know how soon I will have. He realizes that
I'm cat-and-mousing him, the way I did Walters. So he'll try to kill me
before I pounce, and when he does, he'll convict himself. What he doesn't
realize is that as long as he sits tight, he's perfectly safe."

Neither of them mentioned the obvious corollary, that conviction and
execution would be almost simultaneous. It must have been uppermost in
Gladys's mind; she leaned over and put her hand on Rand's arm.

"Jeff, would it help any if I stayed home, instead of going to church?"
she asked. "I'm a pretty fair pistol-shot. Lane taught me. I can stay
over ninety at slow fire, and in the eighties at timed-and-rapid. If I
hid somewhere with a target pistol--"

"Absolutely not!" Rand vetoed emphatically. "I'm not saying that because
I'm afraid you might stop a slug yourself. You're a big girl, now; you
can take your own chances. But if you stayed home, he wouldn't make a
move. You and Geraldine and Nelda have to be out of the house before
he'll feel safe coming out of the grass."

"Watch it!" Ritter warned. "Yes, ma'am; at once, ma'am."

Nelda came in and sat down.