g to the zoo?"

"I'm crazy," Jim admitted. "But if they found a girl's dress a block
from where we parked, and there's a silver fox at the zoo this
morning, I want to know why."

Puffy's stout figure was hidden behind the glass door. Water started
its inviting swish from the shower. His voice came out with a hollow
ring.

"Well, Cinderella," he said whimsically, "we're on the make again, but
the odds are against us. If that dame can bite my arm and turn into an
animal in the same night she'll make a hell of a mate for Jimmy."

Drake was already halfway across the room, knotting the sash of his
robe with long brown fingers.

"It's the call of the wild," he shouted above the hiss of the shower.
"We all have to answer it some time."

* * * * *

Half way out of town Jim Drake drew the coupe skillfully to the curb
and turned off the motor. He had parked opposite the city library.
Drake felt much better this morning. The sobering effect of the
_Morning Star_ had made a new man of him in short order. Dressed
neatly in a brown sport suit, clean white shirt and white shoes, Jim
looked his type perfectly. Young bachelor with cash to burn, yet with
a certain dissatisfaction in himself that had etched little wrinkles
around the clear brown eyes.

He pushed the door open and tapped Puffy Adams lightly on the
shoulder. Exhausted from the events of the night before, Adams was
cat-napping peacefully.

He sat up stiffly under Drake's touch and his face reddened.

"Huh?"

"This is where you get out," Jim grinned. "You're going to do some
reading this afternoon."

Puffy was dumbfounded. His only association with the printed page was
the _Morning Star_ and the _Police Gazette_.

"Wait a minute," he protested. "Don't I get a look at that fox?"

Jim piloted him skillfully from the car.

"Look up a book on gems," he said. "I want to know how big the largest
diamond was that has been found to date, where it came from, and if
they've ever been found in the far north."

Adams gulped, saw that the boss was sincere and started to turn away.
Jim halted him.

"After that, go down to police headquarters and see what you can dig
up on George Lardner."

Puffy's chin stiffened.

"It'll be dirt," he said. "This boy Lardner comes from an old line of
dirty wash. He's the heel of the family shoe."

Jim Drake nodded.

"That's what I figure," he agreed. "But I want all the facts."

Adams pivoted, t