said at last.

Boyd looked up and, very slowly, nodded. "You're right, Ken," he said
in a quiet voice. "You're absolutely right. It's as plain as the nose
on your face."

"And that," Malone said, "sounds like an insult. It's much plainer
than that. Suppose you tell me."

Boyd considered. "Over here," he said at last, "there are a lot of
confused jerks and idiots. Right?"

"Correct," Malone said.

"And in Russia," Boyd went on, "there's a lot of confusion. Right?"

"Sure," Boyd said. "It's perfectly clear. I wonder why I didn't see it
before."

"That's it!" Malone cried. "That's the difference!"

"Sure," Boyd said. "It's perfectly clear. I wonder why I didn't see it
before."

"Because you weren't looking for it," Malone said. "Because nobody
was. But there's one more check I want to make. There's one area I'm
not sure of, simply because I don't have enough to go on."

"What area is that?" Boyd said. "It seems to me we did a pretty good
job--"

"The Mafia," Malone said. "We know they're having trouble, but--"

"But we don't know what kind of trouble," Boyd finished. "Right you
are."

Malone nodded. "I want to talk to Manelli," he said. "Can we set it
up?"

"I don't see why not," Boyd said. "The A-in-C can give us the latest
on him. You want me with you?"

"No," Malone said after some thought. "No. You go and see Mike Sand,
heading up the International Truckers' Union. We know he's tied up
with the Syndicate, and maybe you can get some information from him.
You know what to dig for?"

"I do now," Boyd said. He reached for the intercom phone.

* * * * *

Cesare Antonio Manelli was a second-generation Prohibition mobster,
whose history can most easily be described by reference to the various
affairs of State which coincided with his development. Thus:

When Cesare was a small toddler of uncertain gait and chubby visage,
the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
canceled out not only the Eighteenth Amendment, but the thriving
enterprises conducted by Manelli, Sr., and many of his friends.

When Cesare was a young schoolboy, poring over the multiplication
tables, his father and his father's friends were busy dividing. They
were dividing, to put it more fully, husbands from families as a means
of requesting ransom, and money from banks as a means of getting the
same cash without use of the middleman, or victim. This was the period
of the Great Readjustment, and the frenzied