out of his every pore. With a last effort he pulled the cord out of the
switchboard and rejoiced over the blank before his eyes and the silence
which fell.

Lee never knew how long he remained in a sort of cataleptic state.
Something shook him violently by the shoulders, something wet and cold
and vicious slapped his face.... And then he heard Gus' familiar voice
and it sounded like an angel's singing: "By God, I think it's the
whisky--Lord, how I wished it were the whisky. Only it wouldn't be with
a man like you and that's the trouble--damn you.

"Now if you think you can come to my pineal gland and faint away just as
you please, Aussie, you're very much mistaken. I'm going to slap your
face with a wet rag till you holler uncle. And I'm going to call the
ambulance and put you into a hospital...."

Lee blinked. "Keep your shirt on, Gus. I'm tired out, that's all; what
are you fussing about?"

Gus breathed relief. "Have a cup of coffee; you sure look as though
you've been through a wringer."

CHAPTER V

In the spring of 1961 and thereafter for a whole year _any_ piece of
paper handwritten by or originating from Semper Fidelis Lee, Ph.D.;
F.R.E.S.; etc. etc. would have been of the keenest interest to the
F.B.I.; to the American Military Intelligence and incidentally to a
score of their competitors all over the globe.

Nothing of the sort, however, could be unearthed by the most diligent
search until the armistice day of 1963. On that date an old man who had
always wanted to die with his boots on, did just that. He was General
Jefferson E. Lee, formerly of the Marines. He collapsed under a heart
attack in one of the happiest moments of his declining years: while
watching a parade of World War II veterans of the Marines....

He was the one man with whom the entomologist son had completely fallen
out for over 25 years. The dossiers of the secret services revealed this
fact and it was further corroborated by two well-known psychiatrists:
Drs. Bondy and Mellish--now of Park Avenue and Beverly Hills
respectively--who gave it as their considered professional opinion that
the son and the father had been most bitter enemies.

While all this, of course, was very logical, consistent, and
painstakingly ascertained, it nevertheless so happened that a student
nurse quite by accident _did_ find: not mere scraps and pieces of paper,
but a whole sheaf of manuscripts in the handwriting of Semper Fidelis
Lee, Ph.D.; F.R