he grew aware of what it was while he watched the party boat head out to sea a few minutes later, smiled at what seemed an impossibly fanciful concoction of his unconscious, and started towards the pier's parking lot. but when he had reached his car, climbed in, turned on the ignition, and lit a cigarette, the notion was still with him and barney was no longer smiling. fanciful it was, extremely so. impossible, in the strict sense, it was not. the longer he played it around, the more he began to wonder whether his notion mightn't hold water after all. if there was anything to it, he had run into one of the biggest deals in history.

later barney realized he would still have let the matter drop there if it hadn't been for other things, having nothing to do with dr. mcallen. he was between operations at present. his time wasn't occupied. furthermore he'd been aware lately that ordinary operations had begun to feel flat. the kick of putting over a deal, even on some other hard, bright character of his own class, unaccountably was fading. barney chard was somewhat frightened because the operator game was the only one he'd ever found interesting; the other role of well-heeled playboy wasn't much more than a manner of killing time. at thirty-seven he was realizing he was bored with life. he didn't like the prospect.

now here was something which might again provide him with some genuine excitement. it could be simply his imagination working overtime, but it wasn't going to do any harm to find out. mind humming with pleased though still highly skeptical speculations, barney went back to the boat station and inquired when the party boat was due to return.

he was waiting for it, well out of sight, as it came chugging up to the wharf some hours later. he had never had anything to do directly with dr. mcallen, so the old man wouldn't recognize him. but he didn't want to be spotted by his two amazons who might feel refreshed enough by now to be ready for another tour of the town.

he needn't have worried. the ladies barely made it to the top of the stairs; they phoned for a cab and were presently whisked away. dr. mcallen meanwhile also had made a telephone call, and settled down not far from barney to wait. a small gray car, five or six years old but of polished and well-tended appearance, trundled presently up the pier, came into the turnaround at the boat station, and stopped. a thin old negro, with hair as white as the doctor's, held the door open for mcallen. the car moved unhurriedly off with them.

the automobile's license number produced dr. mcallen's california address for barney a short while later. the physicist lived in sweetwater beach, fifteen minutes' drive from the pier, in an old spanish-type house back in the hills. the chauffeur's name was john emanuel fredericks; he had been working for mcallen for an unknown length of time. no one else lived there.

barney didn't bother with further details about the sweetwater beach establishment at the moment. the agencies he usually employed to dig up background information were reasonably trustworthy, but he wanted to attract no more attention than was necessary to his interest in dr. mcallen.

that evening he took a plane to new york.