he typewriter--he scowled at the
typewriter as though it were contagious.

"What you want that for?" he asked suspiciously. I shrugged.

"Well--" he scratched his head--"a thousand?"

I shook my head.

"Five hundred?"

I kept on shaking.

"All right, all right," he grumbled. "Look, you take the other things
for six thousand--including what you got in your pockets that you
don't think I know about, see? And I'll throw this in. How about it?"

That was fine as far as I was concerned, but just on principle I
pushed him a little further. "Forget it," I said. "I'll give you fifty
bills for the lot, take it or leave it. Otherwise I'll walk right down
the street to Gimbel's and--"

He guffawed.

"Whats the matter?" I demanded.

"Pal," he said, "you kill me. Stranger in town, hey? You can't go
anyplace but here."

"Why not?"

"Account of there _ain't_ anyplace else. See, the chief here don't
like competition. So we don't have to worry about anybody taking their
trade elsewhere, like--we burned all the other places down."

That explained a couple of things. I counted out the money, loaded the
stuff back in the wheelbarrow and headed for the Statler; but all the
time I was counting and loading, I was talking to Big Brainless; and
by the time I was actually on the way, I knew a little more about this
"chief."

And that was kind of important, because he was the man we were going
to have to know very well.

II

I locked the door of the hotel room. Arthur was peeping out of the
suitcase at me.

I said: "I'm back. I got your typewriter." He waved his eye at me.

I took out the little kit of electricians' tools I carried, tipped the
typewriter on its back and began sorting out leads. I cut them free
from the keyboard, soldered on a ground wire, and began taping the
leads to the strands of a yard of forty-ply multiplex cable.

It was a slow and dull job. I didn't have to worry about which
solenoid lead went to which strand--Arthur could sort them out. But
all the same it took an hour, pretty near, and I was getting hungry by
the time I got the last connection taped. I shifted the typewriter so
that both Arthur and I could see it, rolled in a sheet of paper and
hooked the cable to Arthur's receptors.

Nothing happened.

"Oh," I said. "Excuse me, Arthur. I forgot to plug it in."

I found a wall socket. The typewriter began to hum and then it started
to rattle and type:

DURA AUK UKOO RQK MWS AQB