Mullins? It was evident that Mullins was the man to go. It was evident that a captain should remain at his desk, directing with a firm hand and keeping a firm seat. Bill Weigand was good and tired of the wall opposite, and the crack in the plaster. Let Mullins keep the firm seat; let Stein.

When Siamese cats are intertwined it is difficult to tell where one leaves off and another begins. Stilts and Shadow, on Pam's bed, appeared to be one cat -- rather large, as Siamese cats go, and, to be sure, having two heads and two tails. On the other hand, they, or it, seemed to have no legs whatever. Pamela North said, ``Hi,'' to her cats, and added that proper cats met their humans at the door. Of four dark brown ears, one twitched slightly at this. ``All right,'' Pam said. ``I know it isn't dinnertime.''

But at this the one too-large cat suddenly became two cats, stretching. Shadow, the more talkative, began at once to talk, her voice piteous. Stilts, a more direct cat, leaped from the bed and trotted briskly toward the kitchen. Shadow looked surprised, wailed, and trotted after her. The hell it isn't dinnertime, two waving tails told Pam North.

It was not, whatever tale was told by tails. Martha presumably would cope. She might be firm. It was most unlikely that she would be firm. They want to be fat cats, Pam thought, and lighted a cigarette and leaned back on a chaise and considered pulling her thoughts together. After a time, it occurred to her that her thoughts were not worth the trouble. A vague feeling that Anthony Payne had had it coming was hardly a thought and was, in any event, reprehensible. Had Faith Constable's explanation of her confidence, so uninvited, been a little thin? That was more like a thought, but not a great deal more. Had that tall dark boy, carrying trays too heavy for him, found what he might have considered adulation of a man he probably hated more than he could bear? And possessed himself -- how? - of a rifle and killed? Pam found she had no answers; had only a hope. The poor kid -- the poor, frail kid. Some people have luck and some have no luck and that, whatever people who prefer order say, is the size of it. The poor, unlucky --