two brawls in succession had not tired him; he got more exercise than that in an evening at the dojo. but the strain of the time before had had its effect. he woke with a fluttering gasp and saw dust motes dance in a yellow sunbeam. the clock said almost nine.

"judas priest," he groaned. suddenly it came to him that he had left guido unguarded. so much for the amateur detective.

he sprang from bed and twirled the radio controls. having found a newscast, he went into the bathroom and showered; trig yamamura had beaten that much zen into his thick head. through the water noise, he heard that more money was necessary so the nation's bought friends would stay bought; that the countries which had simply given their friendship were being imperialistic, i.e., hanging on to their overseas property, and therefore unworthy of help; that subversive elements in the bottle cap industry were to be investigated; and that mother bloor's old time chicken broth was made by a new scientific process which "sealed in" tiny drops of chicken goodness. nothing was said about another murder.

kintyre sighed and gave himself time to cook breakfast. if guido hadn't been killed last night, he must be safely asleep at home by now. there were a few hours to spare.

he got into slacks and a gray sports shirt: he hated neckties and had no reason to wear one today. first, he decided, he must see trig. after that he could wind up bruce's university job. and, yes, he would take a closer look at the book of witches.

yamamura's office was unimpressively above a drugstore in downtown berkeley, a mile or so to walk. kintyre found him polishing a japanese sword. "hi. isn't this a nice one?" he boasted mildly. "i picked it up last week. it's only tokugawa period, but get the heft, will you?"

kintyre drew the blade. it came suddenly alive. he returned it with a faint sense of loss. "i could have used that chopper last night," he said.

"yeh." narrow black eyes drifted across him, the plaster high on his forehead and the outsize band-aid on his left forearm. "what happened, and is she going to prefer charges?"

"i suspect i met bruce lombardi's murderer," said kintyre. "or one of them."

yamamura slid the sword carefully into its plain wooden scabbard. he took out his oldest briar and stuffed the bowl. kintyre had finished his account by the time the pipe had a full head of steam up.

"—so i came on home."

yamamura looked irritated. "it's your own stupid fault larkin got away," he said. "obviously you were holding your neck muscles tense. the stool wouldn't have hurt you to speak of if you weren't." he waggled his pipestem. "how often must i tell you, relax? or don't you want to win your black belt?"

"come off it," said kintyre. "look, what i'm afraid of is that larkin, or someone associated with him, may decide guido isn't safe to leave alive."

"all right. let guido ask the police for protection."

"he can't. i don't know why, but he doesn't dare. he'd rather take his chances with larkin."

"i'd suggest that if he's that scared of the authorities, he deserves whatever he'll get."

"don't be such a damned prig. guido may be an accessory, of course, but i hate to think that. why write him off before we're sure he wasn't just someone's dupe?"

"mmmm. what has all this to do with me?"

"i want you to keep an eye on him."

"so? what's wrong with you doing this? your vacation is coming up. i still have a living to make, and you can't pay me."

"i haven't the skill. and guido and larkin both know my face. also, i do think i can be of some value on this side of the bay."

"huh! sherlock nero poirot rides again."

"no. think, trig. the probability is that bruce was killed by one or more professionals. but they didn't do it for fun. somebody hired them, and that somebody is the real murderer. i've two reasons for wanting to meddle a little bit, rather than simply dumping what i know into the official lap. first, to spare guido, at least till i'm sure if he's worth sparing or not. but second, this may not be entirely a police problem. they'll concentrate on the actual, physical killers, try to find one or two or three ants in the whole bay area antheap. they've no choice about that, it's their duty. doubtless they'll put a man on the job of finding out who the killers' boss is. but the police don't know anyone concerned very intimately. the boss will have a certain amount of time to cover his tracks. or to plan another murder.

"i knew bruce well. i must have met all his friends, however casually. i have met whoever had bruce killed. it may be sheer megalomania on my part, but i think there's a chance i could get an idea who it was."

yamamura put his feet on the desk, leaned back, and stared out the window at the street. "okay," he said at last. "on conditions."

"what?"

"i do have my family to keep. not to mention my license. i'll undertake a week or so of guido-guarding as an investment. because if i could get a clue to the murderers, the boss or his torpedos, if i could give any substantial help to the police, the publicity would be good for my business. but to do anything useful along those lines, i'll have to leave guido from time to time. i'll tail him when i think he may be in danger, yes, but when i think he's going to be safe for a few hours, i'll go check on something else."

"all right," said kintyre. "in fact, excellent."

yamamura looked at him through pipe smoke and said gravely: "if i find reasons why guido should be arrested, i won't cover for him. i'll turn him in. furthermore, i could make an error in judgment. i might leave guido and come back to find guido plus a knife. now i sort of like you, bob, don't ask me why. i'd hate to think you would hold either my informing or my mistake against me."

"certainly not."

"are you sure?"

"you know me, trig."

yamamura thought it over for a while. "very well," he said. "let's get the descriptions, addresses, and whatever else you know."

when they had finished, they were silent a few seconds.

"oh, what did you find out about owens?" asked kintyre.

"wife and two grown children in new york. started as a business traveler, years ago; found that his hobby of writing paid more, and quit to write full time; captain's commission during the war, chairborne brigade in washington—"

"if it takes a criminology degree to enter a bookstore, tell the clerk you're just looking, and read a dust jacket biography, then i'm in the wrong racket."

yamamura settled himself more comfortably. "owens has been hanging around berkeley for several days without obvious motive," he said. "addressed a writers' club saturday night, but left early and was presumably on the town. they say at the hotel he slept late on sunday, but no one remembers when he came in. played some golf sunday afternoon, dropped from sight again that night. since then he's been simply—around. bored, lonesome, but waiting for something or other."

"in short," said kintyre, "it's possible he—"

"did it personally? i don't know. anything is possible, i guess. he may just have been out on the make, too. the chambermaid at his hotel tells me he's the pawing type. of course, if the murder was done by proxy, these timetables don't mean anything anyway."

"of course," said kintyre.