“Oh, God!” said Hamilton. “Let’s hope these particular girls have extremely low IQ’s. They could be the exact opposite of the intellectual type.” “I wouldn’t bet on it, Chief,” was Miss Alderman’s reply. “Though it doesn’t seem quite fair, when you come right down to it.” “How did you get him away from them?” he asked. She shook her close-cut darkhaired head. “If I hadn’t been full of outraged righteousness, if I’d stopped to think twice, I’d never have made it,” she admitted. “I just marched in and led poor Sven out by the ear. It was a high-handed, somewhat unworthy trick--at least he seemed to think so once I had him under wraps. I’m beginning to think so myself.” “Get hold of yourself, Nancy,” said Hamilton, rising. “You’ve done SPR a very great service. How’d you keep him here?” “Not the way you think,” she said promptly. “By the time I got him here he was running out of steam. He wanted to talk--and go on drinking. He’s a pretty nice guy, you know. It took me all the rest of the night to get him folded up.” She paused, then added, “Chief, is this new item of his as hot as he claims?” “Ian Harris was in my office just now, having catfits over it,” said Hamilton. “Potentially, it’s the hottest potato SPR has ever come up with. And we’ve had to handle some pretty sizzling ones, remember?” “I remember,” said Miss Alderman. Hamilton rose. He said, “I think we’d better wake Ryan up. We can’t let him sleep here indefinitely.” “Why, Chief!” asked Miss Alderman, standing to reveal a trim if not opulent figure. “I’m not, at the moment, concerned about your reputation,” he told her, inwardly damning all women for their tendency to coyness at the wrong moments. “What I am concerned with is Ryan and his--” The doorbell chimed sharply. After a swift, silent interchange, Miss Alderman answered it. Rather expecting Ian Harris to have run them to earth, Hamilton was not wholly surprised at the appearance of a huge, burly man with bushy black eyebrows and a ruggedly handsome face. Face and body belonged to Charles Forsythe, Undersecretary of Science and Industry in the Cabinet of the President of the United States and one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful individuals. It is perhaps needless to add that he was, incidentally, SPR’s deadliest foe in the name of private enterprise. Miss Alderman turned to stare at Hamilton, her expression bewildered and uncertain. Hamilton said, quietly, “Come in, Charlie. Come in. I’m glad to see you.” “Glad to see you, too, Park,” said Forsythe. The two men eyed each other with the restrained wariness of polite jungle cats. Then Forsythe’s mouth twitched and Hamilton found himself laughing with the intruder. _Confound the man!_ he thought. It was a hell of a note when you couldn’t stay mad at your enemies.