anced. His tail had
received the same treatment as his head. He wondered if a person could
get concussion of the tail bones, and had reached no definite conclusion
when, unexpectedly, his eyes focused again.

He was looking at a girl. That was all he saw at first. She had
apparently fallen just as he had, bounced once and sat down rather hard.
She was now lying flat on her back, making a sound like "_rrr_" between
her teeth.

Malone discovered that he was sitting undignifiedly on the steps. He
opened his mouth to say something objectionable, took another look at
the girl, and shut it with a snap. This was no ordinary girl.

He smiled at her. She shook her head and sat up, still going "_rrr_."
Then she stopped and said, instead: "What do you think--"

"I'm sorry," Malone said in what he hoped was a charming, debonair and
apologetic voice. It was quite a lot to get into one voice, but he tried
his very hardest. "I just didn't see--"

[Illustration]

"You didn't?" the girl said. "If you didn't, you must be completely
blind."

Malone noticed with hope that there was no anger in her voice. The last
thing in the world he wanted was to get this girl angry at him.

"Oh, no," Malone said. "I'm not blind. Not blind at all." He smiled at
her and stood up. His face was beginning to get a little tired, but he
retained the smile as he went over to her, extended a hand and pulled
her to her feet.

She was something special. Her hair was long and dark, and fell in soft
waves to her shoulders. The shoulders were something all by themselves,
but Malone postponed consideration of them for a minute to take a look
at her face.

It was heart-shaped and rather thin. She had large brown liquid eyes
that could look, Malone imagined, appealing, loving, worshiping--or,
like a minute ago, downright furious. Below these features, she had a
straight lovely nose and a pair of lips which Malone immediately
classified as Kissable.

Her figure, including the shoulders, was on the slim side, but she was
very definitely all there. Malone could not think of any parts the
Creator had left out, and if there were any he didn't want to hear about
them. In an instant, Malone knew that he had met the only great love of
his life.

Again.

His mind was whirling and for a second he didn't know what to do. And
then he remembered the Queen's Own FBI. Phrases flowered forth in his
mind as if it were a garden packed corner to corner with the most
exq