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did, sure, but I didn’t think it was important enough—"
    "Okay, I just want to make sure I have it straight. Go ahead."
    "Then I sort of swung around—my hands were still behind my head—and I lucked out and hit him in the neck…"
    Gideon stopped. Lau was smiling cheerfully at him.
    "Okay," said Gideon, "what now? I’m getting the feeling you know something I don’t."
    Still grinning, the policeman unbuttoned the flap on the pocket of his denim shirt and took out a small notebook. "This is from the tape the MPs made of your story. Verbatim. ‘Then I pivoted around. I drove my left elbow into his larynx. I caught him on the thyroid cartilage, at the apex of the laryngeal prominence.’ Uh, as a simple policeman, can I assume you’re referring to the Adam’s apple?"
    Gideon, on guard, nodded. Lau continued. "That’s pretty technical language, isn’t it? Or don’t tell me you’re an anatomist, too?"
    "Yes, I’m an anatomist, too," said Gideon, showing more heat than he intended. "My primary field is physical anthropology—that’s skulls and bones—" he permitted himself a condescending smile at Lau, who returned it with evident good humor—"and you have to know anatomy for that."
    Lau nodded. "I see. Well, what I was wondering… that’s a pretty fortunate piece of ‘lucking out’—I mean accidentally connecting with the Adam’s apple—excuse me, the laryngeal prominence—" he consulted his notebook— "of the thyroid cartilage of the larynx. That’s a pretty vulnerable spot. You didn’t happen to know, I suppose, that an elbow smash there is a standard defensive maneuver against someone who’s got you from behind?" Again he had his coffee cup in both hands and was swirling the dregs and carefully examining them.
    "No, I damn well didn’t know," Gideon said. "What the hell are you trying to imply? I’m telling you I had a lucky—"
    "And the business of scraping down the shin with the heel. Very impressive. About the most painful thing you can do to a man without really injuring him. Always effective." He drained the coffee. "Didn’t know about that either?"
    "Well, to tell the truth—" Lau looked sharply up at him from under his eyebrows, and Gideon continued—"to tell the truth, I read about that in a self-defense book when I was a kid, but I never tried it before."
    For a second Lau looked angry. Then his eyes crinkled again, and he laughed with a babylike spontaneity that made it impossible for Gideon not to join him.
    "It’s the truth, honest," Gideon said through his laughter. Lau kept on laughing. Gideon suddenly remembered something. "Hey, wait a minute. That guy, the one I said was an American…"
    Reluctantly, the policeman sobered. "Yes, what about him?"
    "Well, he was American all right, but he’s spent a lot of time in Europe; in Germany, I think. I just realized it. What was it he said? ‘So, now we find out.’ No, it was, ‘So, now we see.’ That’s not American syntax. And he said it the
way
a German would: ‘So, now …we see.’ Americans don’t do that. The construction isn’t American, and certainly the rhythm isn’t. Could be he had German parents, but I don’t think so. I think he’s an American who’s been here a long time."
    Lau was unimpressed. "I’m not sure I buy that. But please,"—he held up a hand as Gideon began to speak—"I don’t think I can handle another linguistics lecture. Doc, are you going to be in Heidelberg a while?"
    "No, I leave Sunday morning for Sicily. I have to give some lectures there next week. But I’ll be back in Heidelberg the week after. Probably arrive a week from Sunday."
    "Fine. I might want to get in touch with you."
    "Okay, but I won’t be staying here. I’ll be at the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters. Cheaper. And a lot more convenient to the classes."
    "Good idea. The BOQ will be safer, too."
    "What do you mean? You don’t think they’ll come again?"
    "No, no," said Lau, "I doubt it." A pause, then the sudden grin