"I stayed with Gonino for nearly a year. Then one night a visiting bank clerk lost his head and shot him eight times with a .22 target pistol. I left town the same night. "After that I sold used cars for a couple of months in Memphis; then I made like a life guard at Daytona; baited hooks on a thirty-foot tuna boat out of Key West; all the odd jobs with low pay and no future. I spent a couple of years in Cuba; all I got out of that was two bullet scars on the left leg, and a prominent position on a CIA blacklist. "After that things got tough. A man in my trade can't really hope to succeed in a big way without the little blue card in the plastic cover to back his play. I was headed south for the winter, and I picked Mayport to run out of money." I stood up. "I sure enjoyed the bath, Mr. Foster, and the meal, too--I'd like real well to get into that bed upstairs and have a night's sleep just to make it complete; but I'm not interested in the job." I turned away and started across the room. "Legion," Foster said. I turned. A beer bottle was hanging in the air in front of my face. I put a hand up fast and the bottle slapped my palm. "Not bad set of reflexes for a man whose adventures are all behind him," Foster said. I tossed the bottle aside. "If I'd missed, that would have knocked my teeth out," I said angrily. "You didn't miss--even though you're weaving a little from the beer. And a man who can feel a pint or so of beer isn't an alcoholic--so you're clean on that score." "I didn't say I was ready for the rummy ward," I said. "I'm just not interested in your proposition--whatever it is." "Legion," Foster said, "maybe you have the idea I put that ad in the paper last week on a whim. The fact is, I've been running it--in one form or another--for over eight years." I looked at him and waited. "Not only locally--I've run it in the big-city papers, and in some of the national weekly and monthly publications. All together, I've had perhaps fifty responses." Foster smiled wryly. "About three quarters of them were from women who thought I wanted a playmate. Several more were from men with the same idea. The few others were hopelessly unsuitable." "That's surprising," I said. "I'd have thought you'd have brought half the nuts in the country out of the woodwork by now." Foster looked at me, not smiling. I realized suddenly that behind the urbane façade there was a hint of tension, a trace of worry in the level blue eyes. "I'd like very much to interest you in what I have to say, Legion. I think you lack only one thing--confidence in yourself." I laughed shortly. "What are the qualifications you think I have? I'm a jack of no trades----"