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store and found Paul Drake leaning against the marble slab of the soda fountain, smoking a cigarette.
    "You were long enough getting here," the detective said.
    "Bradbury was in the office," Mason told him, "and he wanted to tell me a lot of stuff about Doray."
    "Yeah?" asked Paul Drake.
    "And then," said Perry Mason, "he was offering Della Street a cigarette. He was doing it with something of a manner."
    The men looked at each other and laughed.
    "Well," Paul Drake said, "I don't know how you feel about it, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't care how impressionable he is. That's what's giving me the butter on my bread. Personally, I'd say he was laboring under the impression he was quite a ladies' man. Did you notice the way he smirked at Mamie down at the cigar counter?"
    Perry Mason nodded curtly.
    "However," Paul Drake went on, "you can't blame him. He's evidently a bachelor with plenty of money. You notice the way he dolls himself up. His tie must have cost more than five dollars. His tailored suit is a wonderful piece of work. And the particular shade of brown has been chosen with some care. You can tell, because it matches his complexion. And then he wears socks, shoes, tie and shirt all in a general color scheme of -"
    Perry Mason made a gesture of disgust.
    "Forget it," he said. "Let's get down to brass tacks. What about Patton?"
    "I don't know much more than I told you over the telephone, but I want to work out a plan of campaign."
    "All right," Perry Mason said, "here's the plan of campaign. You've got your car here?"
    "Yes."
    "You get in it and go on out to the Holliday Apartments. I've got a taxicab waiting out here. I'll go out in it. You may make a little better time in your car than the cab, so you'd better give me a start of about five minutes. I'll go out there and break the ice. You come busting into the apartment without knocking. I'll try and arrange things so the door is open."
    "What do I do after I come in?" Paul Drake inquired.
    "You follow my lead," Perry Mason said. "I'm going to start browbeating him. He'll either get frightened or righteously indignant, one of the two. You can tell which it is when you open the door.
    "You can pretend you haven't got any connection with me, if you want to. Or you can put up any kind of a stall you want. Bradbury is going to be at my office within half an hour with original newspapers that we can use any way we want to. We can tell him that part of the newspaper subscription list went through the mail, and that therefore he'd used the mails to defraud."
    "That'll be a good line," Drake said. "We should have the newspapers with us."
    "I know it," Mason said, "but Bradbury forgot them and I didn't want to wait. Della Street is in the office, all ready to grab a taxi and come out as soon as we get him softened up a bit. He'll probably be hard at first, and I don't want Della to hear what goes on.
    "Now, remember that I'm to take the general lead, but we can pull almost anything we want to. The district attorney can't use improper methods to get a confession; but we can use almost anything we want to get a confession. And then he can confirm it later on to the district attorney."
    "And you're going to try to make him admit that his intention was to defraud?" asked the detective.
    "That's the gist of the whole business," Perry Mason said. "We keep plugging away at him until we get that admission. After we get it, we don't care what happens."
    "All right," Paul Drake said, "let's go. I'll give you five minutes. It'll take you almost twenty minutes to get out there."
    "Not much over fifteen," Mason said. "You just give me five minutes' start, and don't worry about the time at the other end."
    Paul Drake nodded, motioned to the attendant at the counter.
    "A bromo seltzer," he said.
    Perry Mason turned and flagged his taxicab from the opposite curb. As the cab swung around to him, he said, "The Holliday Apartments on Maple Avenue; 3508 is the number. Step on it."
    He