It still lived, for the eyes rolled up to glare at Gascon, the jaws snapped at his toe. He kicked the thing back through the door, into the growing flames. The fire was bright enough to show him the way back along the corridor. He did not know how Tom-Tom had arranged the panel to open and close, nor did he pause to find out. Heavy blows of the bar cleared him a way. Out in the office, he fairly sprang to the desk, located the button on its top, and pressed it. A moment later, Shannon was staring out at him through her grating. "Ben!" she gasped. "Are you all right? Tom-Tom--" "He's finished," Gascon told her. "This whole business is finished." With his lever he managed to rip the grating from its fastenings, and then dragged Shannon forth. She clung to him like a child awakened from a nightmare. "Come, we're getting out." In the second corridor he stooped, searched the pockets of the senseless triangle-faced one and secured the keys to the car outside. Then he shook the fellow back to semi-consciousness. "This house is on fire!" Gascon shouted. "Get your pal upstairs on his feet, and get out of here." Leaving the fellow standing weakly, Gascon and Shannon got into the open and into the car. Driving along the street, they heard the clang of fire-engines, heading for the now angry fire. Shannon said one thing: "Ben, how much can we tell the police?" "It isn't how much we can tell them," replied Gascon weightily. "It's how little." * * * * * When Autumn returned, Ben Gascon was on the air again after all. His sponsors feared that his marriage to Shannon Cole might damage their popularity as co-stars, but radio fans showed quite the opposite reaction. Gascon introduced a fresh note in the form of a new dummy, which he named Jack Duffy, a green-horn character with a husky voice instead of a shrill one and rural humor instead of cocktail-hour repartee. Sometimes people asked what had become of Tom-Tom; but Gascon always managed to change the subject, and eventually Tom-Tom was forgotten.