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leave him."
    "Go ahead."
    "I have another man who wants to support me."
    "Swell."
    "I'd have to marry him."
    "Then you could get a divorce from Basset."
    "But I'd have to marry him at once."
    "You mean you'd go through a marriage ceremony without getting a divorce from Basset?"
    "Yes."
    "Then this man doesn't know you're married to Basset?"
    "Yes," she said slowly; "he does."
    "He wants to become a party to a bigamous marriage?"
    "We want to fix it so it isn't bigamy."
    "You could," Perry Mason said, "get a quick divorce by going to certain places."
    "Would he have to know anything about it?"
    "Yes."
    "Then I couldn't get it."
    "Then you couldn't get married."
    "I could get married, couldn't I? It would be only a question of whether the marriage was legal or illegal."
    "You'd have to perjure yourself in order to get a license."
    "Well, suppose I perjured myself. What then?"
    The lawyer, turning to study her profile, said, "You mentioned something about being followed. I presume you noticed the automobile parked close to the curb behind us?"
    "Good God, no!" she said.
    She whirled around so that she could look through the rear window, and gave a stifled half-scream.
    "My God, it's James!"
    "Who is James?"
    "My husband's chauffeur."
    "That your husband's car?"
    "Yes, one of them."
    "You think the chauffeur followed you?"
    "I know it. I thought I had slipped away from him, but I didn't."
    "What do you want to do now; get out?"
    "No. Drive around the block and let me out at the house."
    "The man in the car behind," Mason said, "knows that you've seen him."
    "I can't help that. Please do as I say. Please, at once!"
    Mason drove the car around the block. The car which had been parked behind him switched on headlights and followed doggedly. Mason slid the car to the curb in front of Basset's residence, leaned across the woman and opened the door.
    "If you want to consult me," he said, "I'll come in."
    "No, no!" she half-screamed.
    A figure moved from the shadows, stepped up close to the car, and Hartley Basset said, "Did you, by any chance, have a rendezvous with my wife?"
    Mason opened the door on his side of the car, got out, crossed around the rear of the car, and stood toe to toe with Hartley Basset. "No," he said, "I didn't."
    "Then," Basset said, "my wife must have arranged a meeting. Was she trying to consult you about something?" Mason braced himself, feet wide apart.
    "The reason I got out of the car," he said, "and walked over here, was to tell you to mind your own damned business."
    The other car which had followed Mason had parked close to the curb. A tall, thin man who walked with a quick, cat-like step, opened the car door, started toward Mason, then, as he heard the tone of Mason's voice, turned back to the car, took something from a side pocket in the door and walked rapidly toward the lawyer, approaching him from the rear. The headlights gleamed on a wrench which he held in his right hand.
    The lawyer swung around so that he faced both men. Mrs. Basset ran up the steps to the house, slammed the door shut behind her.
    "Do you birds," Mason asked ominously, "want to start something?"
    Basset looked over at the tall man with the wrench.
    "That's all, James," he said.
    Mason stared at them steadily, then said slowly, "You're damn right that's all."
    He turned to his own car, slid behind the wheel, and kicked in the clutch. The pair behind him stood watching him, silhouetted against the headlights of the parked car.
    The lawyer swung his car into a skidding turn and straightened into swift speed as he hit the main boulevard.
    He braked the car to a stop when he came to a drug store, walked to the telephone booth, dialed a number, and, when he heard Bertha McLane's anxious voice said, "It's all off."
    "Wouldn't he accept it?"
    "No."
    "What did he want?"
    "Something that was impossible."
    "What was it?"
    "It was impossible."
    "But, at least you must tell me what it was."
    "He wanted you to pay one hundred dollars a