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car?”
    “Three an’ three.” The line hummed for a moment. “Okay?”
    “Okay. So far.”
    “I’d like to meet with you, Charlie.”
    I wasn’t ready to go that fast. “You’re Slater?”
    “Right. I got a proposition for you. Biggest thing’s come along in years. Maybe ever.”
    It wasn’t my method of operation. In the past I’d always drawn up the plan and put the proposition. But I had nothing going for me now. I stood there in the phone booth, trying to recall what I could of Slater’s characteristics from the Massillon job.
    “You still there?” the telephone voice inquired.
    “I’m here. I’m trying to make up my mind.”
    “Charlie Gosger never had no trouble makin’ up his mind.”
    It was true. So true that it jolted me. Was that what was the matter with me lately? One of the things? Charlie Gosger would study a situation, and if it looked right and felt right, he’d open the stops and bore in. Life had been marvelously uncomplicated in those days.
    But the old days had nothing to do with my decision now. If I said yes and met this man Slater, I’d be giving away the anonymity of Earl Drake, which I’d literally gone through hell to establish. And depending upon Slater’s proposition, I could be giving it away for nothing.
    But where was I headed now? Into penny ante stuff because my nerve was gone? That wasn’t right, either. It wasn’t my nerve. The affair at the ranch had proved that. It was just that I couldn’t seem to initiate a project any longer.
    I took a breath and released it. “Where do you want to meet, Slater?”
    “How about right in San Diego?” he came back promptly. “The Aztec Hotel. In the bar. I can be there at five tomorrow afternoon.”
    It reminded me. “You won’t know me.”
    “I won’t?”
    “I have a new face.”
    “ ‘Zat right? You been to Switzerland?”
    “It was done here.”
    “Remind me to get the name of the doctor. Couple pals of mine’d be interested. Now about tomorrow. I won’t be wearin’ a sign because I owe Uncle a little time, but you should know me. The Aztec bar at five, okay? An’ come thinkin’ big. You never heard nothin’ like this before.”
    “I’ll be there,” I said, and hung up.
    I didn’t go back to Curly’s.
    I went back to my room and sat in its uncomfortable chair while I tried to figure out why I had jumped so quickly sight unseen at Slater’s unorthodox proposal for a meeting.
    I gave it up finally and went to bed.
    • • •
    At four the next afternoon I scrawled the name of Earl Drake on an Aztec Hotel registration card and was assigned Room 304. I looked around the room after I got rid of the bellboy who had brought up my briefcase, my only piece of luggage. It was a pleasant-looking room. It seemed a shame to waste it on a meeting that might come to nothing.
    No sooner thought than done. I went downstairs to the lobby pay phones. I gave the long distance operator Hazel’s number and waited while the call went through. “Hi,” I said when the familiar deep voice came on the line.
    “Hi, yourself,” she returned in pleased surprise.
    “Any excitement?”
    “With you gone?” she asked demurely.
    “What did you tell the man?”
    “That I did it myself.”
    “That you did it
yourself
?”
    “Oh, he didn’t believe me.” She giggled. “If it had been done with a two-by-four or a baseball bat, he’d have believed it quick enough, but—”
    “Can you fly down here?” I interrupted her.
    Her voice quickened. “I certainly can.”
    “Get yourself booked and call me back here and let me know what time you’ll arrive at the airport.” I gave her the number of the pay phone booth.
    “I’ll call you right back,” she promised.
    I sat in a lobby armchair while I waited for the call. I had left Hazel’s place thinking that if she kept her mouth shut, there would be no real follow-through on the episode with the sadistic kids. Second thought had showed me the hole in the doughnut. Hazel