ends
like a drunken sailor, tossing his money away on all sorts of things."

"Like an expense account," Malone said idly. Lynch looked up. "Sorry,"
Malone said. "I was thinking about something else."

"I'll bet you were," Lynch said with unconcealed envy.

"No," Malone said. "Really. Listen, I'll check with Internal Revenue on
that money. But have you got a list of the kids' addresses?"

"I can get one," Lynch said, and went to the door.

It closed behind him. Malone sat waiting alone for a few minutes, and
then Lynch came back. "List'll be here in a minute," he said. He sat
down behind his desk and reached for the notebook again. When he turned
to the third page his expression changed to one of surprise.

"Be damned," said. "There does seem to be a connection, doesn't there?"
He held up the picture of the red Cadillac for Malone to see.

"Sure does," Malone said. "That's why I want those addresses. If there
is a connection, I sure want to find out about it."

Ten minutes later, Malone was walking out of the precinct station with
the list of addresses in his pocket. He was heading for his Great
Adventure, but he didn't know it. All he was thinking about was the red
Cadillacs, and the eight teen-agers. "I'm going to get to the bottom of
this if it takes me all summer," he said, muttering to himself.

"That's the spirit," he told himself. "Never say die."

Then, realizing he had just said it, he frowned. Perhaps it hadn't
really counted. But, then again....

* * * * *

He was on his way down the steps when he hit the girl.

The mutual collision was not catastrophic. On the other hand, it was not
exactly minor. It fell somewhere between the two, as an unclassifiable
phenomenon of undoubted potency. Malone said: "Oog," with some fervor as
the girl collided with his chest and rebounded like a handball striking
a wall. Something was happening to her, but Malone had no time to spare
to notice just what. He was falling through space, touching a concrete
step once in a while, but not long enough to make any real acquaintance
with it. It seemed to take him a long time to touch bottom, and when he
had, he wondered if _touch_ was quite the word.

_Bottom_ certainly was. He had fallen backward and landed directly on
his _glutei maximi_, obeying the law regarding equal and opposite
reaction and several other laws involving falling bodies.

His first thought was that he was now neatly bal