"Shut up, you two," Bix said, scowling.

"To continue," I said firmly. "The real give-away as far as Corridan was concerned was the murder of Madge Kennitt. I saw him after I had left Madge's flat to get her a bottle of whisky. I spotted Corridan outside the house, then when I returned I found Madge dead. She had written Jacobi's name in the dust, hoping it would give me a clue, which, of course, it did. Corridan arrived with his dicks, spotted the writing and blotted it out, hoping I hadn't seen it."

"But you had," Bix said. "Let's have some more whisky. The excitement is making me feel faint."

"I'd seen it all right," I went on, ignoring him, "and Fred put me on to the facts of the Jacobi case. Merryweather, the private dick I had hired, told Corridan that a black and yellow Bentley car had been seen at the cottage. I've traced the car to Corridan. He realized that he'd have to get rid of it, and sold it to a guy called Peter French. I happened to call on French and see the car, and Corridan found out that I'd seen it. He got Netta to try to persuade me that French was the killer of Madge Kennitt and I nearly fell for it.

"Well, the pace was getting too hot for Corridan. He decided to get the loot out of the country. I could help there, and Netta was the obvious choice to carry the stuff. Corridan had a showdown with Bradley, told him Netta was alive, and she was to take the loot to America. Bradley didn't like the idea, but Corridan had too much on him to raise objections. The loot was handed over to Netta, and she began to work on me. I played into their hands by taking Bradley's rings, and then getting myself hooked up with Littlejohns' murder. Cole helped by pretending to blackmail me, and I played it to look as if I was being stampeded to leave the country."

"I believe the end's in sight," Crystal said, sighing with relief.

"It is," I said. "I arranged with Harry to kid Netta into thinking he would fly us to the States . . ."

"And a very fine job I made of it, too," Bix said, beaming.

"I gave O'Malley the facts and he nabbed Cole, and laid a trap for Corridan. As luck would have it, Corridan heard that Cole had been arrested and guessed something had gone wrong with his plans. He took a chance and came on to Madge's flat just as Netta and I were about to leave for the airport. I think his idea was to knock me off and get Netta to persuade Harry to take her and Corridan to the States."

"As if I would," Bix said scornfully.

"Anyway, O'Malley was listening in and Corridan walked into the trap," I concluded. "If those two don't swing, I'll be surprised."

"You mean you thought all that out without any help?" Crystal said, gazing at me with unconcealed admiration. "I'm proud of you, precious. I should never have thought it of you."

"Come on," I said, signalling the waiter, "let's get out of here. If you two fellows haven't anything better to do, amuse yourselves; Crystal is going to amuse mea"alone."

"Give me five minutes, precious," she said, getting to her feet. "I'm going to powder my nose and then I'll be very amusing."

When she had gone Ullman glanced at his watch, got to his feet.

"I've got to write this story," he said. "You two guys keep each other company. Say good-bye to Miss Godwin for me, will you? So long and thanks for the details."

Bix made a move to follow him, but I grabbed his arm.

"Listen, lug," I said, "you stick around where I can see you. I want you to stay right here until Crystal comes back, then I want you to fade quietly away."

"What makes you think she cares for you, you sap?" Bix demanded heatedly. "Why, I'll have her eating out of my hand if I can get her alone for two minutes."

"It may surprise you to know she's not that kind of a girl," I said with dignity. "Moreover, she eats off a plate, and if you start anything I don't like I'll make you think the war's started again."

We sat glowering at each other for half an hour, then we both became uneasy.

"Now I wonder where she's got to," I said, looking towards the grillroom door. "No sign of her. She can't be powdering her nose all this time."

I saw suspicion and alarm in Bix's eyes.

"You don't think that rat . . . ?" he began.

I jumped to my feet, made a dash into the lobby with Bix on my heels. There was no sign of her out there. I went up to the hall-porter, asked him if he had seen her.

"Miss Godwin left about twenty minutes ago, sir," he said, "with Mr. Ullman. I believe Mr. Ullman was saying something about showing her his Press cuttings."

"And I was going to show her my tattoo marks," Bix wailed.

I tapped him on the chest. "It was the bags under that rat's eyes and his talk about his mother that did it," I said savagely. "The girl's dissolute."

"I like 'em that way, don't you?" Bix asked, leading me towards the bar.

I said I did.

THE END.