uble doors wide open and the pink marble entrance hall all lit
up brilliant. Grouped in the middle of it, in front of a fountain banked
with ferns, are about a dozen people who seem to be chatterin' away
earnest and excited.

"Why, how odd!" says Mrs. Robert, hesitatin' with her thumb on the bell
button.

"Looks like a fam'ly caucus," says I. "Maybe they heard we were coming
and are taking a vote to see whether they let us in or bar us out."

I could make out Andres Zosco in the center of the bunch wearin' a
silk-faced dinner coat and chewin' nervous on a fat black cigar. Also I
could guess that the tall chemical blonde at his right must be the
celebrated Myrtle Mapes that used to smile on us from so many
billboards. To the left was a huge billowy female decorated generous
with pearl ropes and ear pendants. Then there was a funny little old guy
in a cutaway and a purple tie, a couple of squatty, full-chested women
dressed as fancy as a pair of plush sofas, a maid or so, and a pie-faced
scared-lookin' gink that it was easy to guess must be the butler.
Everybody had been so busy talkin' that they hadn't heard us swarm up
the steps.

"I say," whispers Mr. Robert, "hadn't we better call it off?"

"And never know what is going on?" protests Vee. "Certainly not. I'm
going to knock." Which she does.

"There!" says I. "You've touched off the panic."

For a minute it looked like she had, too, for most of 'em jumps
startled, or clutches each other by the arm. Then they sort of surges
towards the doorway, Zosco in the lead.

I expect he must have recognized some of us for he indulges in a
cackly, throaty laugh and then waves us in cordial. "Excuse me," says
he. "I--thought it might be somebody else. Mr. Ellins, isn't it? Pleased
to meet you. Come right in, all of you."

And after we've been introduced sketchy all round Mr. Robert remarks
that he's afraid we haven't picked just the right time to pay a call.
"We--we are interrupting a family council or something, aren't we?" he
asks.

"Oh, glad to have you," says Zosco. "It's nothing secret, and perhaps
you can help us out. We're a little upset, for a fact. It's about my
brother Jake. He's been visiting us, him and his wife, for the past
week. Maybe you've seen him ridin' round in the limousine--short,
thick-set party, good deal like me, only a few years younger."

Mr. Robert shakes his head. "Sorry," says he, "but I don't recall----"

"Oh, likely you wouldn't notice