"Your life's still ahead of you," Foster said. He opened the slab of mahogany that was the front door, and I followed him inside. At the end of a short hall he flipped a switch that flooded the room before us with soft light. I stared at an expanse of pale grey carpet about the size of a tennis court, on which rested glowing Danish teak furniture upholstered in rich colors. The walls were a rough-textured grey; here and there were expensively framed abstractions. The air was cool with the heavy coolness of air conditioning. Foster crossed to a bar that looked modest in the setting, in spite of being bigger than those in most of the places I'd seen lately. "Would you care for a drink?" he said. I looked down at my limp, stained suit and grimy cuffs. "Look, Mr. Foster," I said. "I just realized something. If you've got a stable, I'll go sleep in it--" Foster laughed. "Come on; I'll show you the bath." * * * * * I came downstairs, clean, showered, and wearing a set of Foster's clothes. I found him sitting, sipping a drink and listening to music. "The _Liebestodt_," I said. "A little gloomy, isn't it?" "I read something else into it," Foster said. "Sit down and have a bite to eat and a drink." I sat in one of the big soft chairs and tried not to let my hand shake as I reached for one of the sandwiches piled on the coffee table. "Tell me something, Mr. Legion," Foster said. "Why did you come here, mention my name--if you didn't intend to see me?" I shook my head. "It just worked out that way." "Tell me something about yourself," Foster said. "It's not much of a story." "Still, I'd like to hear it." "Well, I was born, grew up, went to school----" "What school?" "University of Illinois." "What was your major?" "Music." Foster looked at me, frowning slightly. "It's the truth," I said. "I wanted to be a conductor. The army had other ideas. I was in my last year when the draft got me. They discovered I had what they considered an aptitude for intelligence work. I didn't mind it. I had a pretty good time for a couple of years." "Go on," Foster said. Well, I'd had a bath and a good meal. I owed him something. If he wanted to hear my troubles, why not tell him? "I was putting on a demonstration. A defective timer set off a charge of H-E fifty seconds early on a one-minute setting. A student was killed; I got off easy with a busted eardrum and a pound or two of gravel imbedded in my back. When I got out of the hospital, the army felt real bad about letting me go--but they did. My terminal leave pay gave me a big weekend in San Francisco and set me up in business as a private investigator. "I had enough left over after the bankruptcy proceedings a few months later to get me to Las Vegas. I lost what was left and took a job with a casino operator named Gonino.