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    "When you see him, tell him that I know everything he's doing. And tell him that his stool pigeon, Rodger Palmer, who's trying to pick up stock and proxies, isn't going to get to first base.
    "I've forgotten more about corporate management of oil properties than these birds ever knew… Tell Mr. Kerry Dutton that whenever he's ready to buy a page ad in the daily papers apologizing to me, I'll think about letting him off the hook. Until that time, he can fry in his own grease."
    Mason smiled. "I think you'd better tell him that yourself, face to face, Mr. Reader."
    "I will if I can find the guy."
    Reader turned on his heel and started for the outer office, paused to say, "And when Desere Ellis finds he's sold her out, there's going to be hell to pay."
    "You can go out this way," Della Street said, holding open the exit door.
    Reader hesitated a minute and said, "Thanks, I'll go out the same way I came in. I like it that way."
    He strode out through the door to the entrance room.

Chapter Five
    It was after seven-thirty. Mason and Della were closing up the office, and Mason was just holding the exit door open for Della when the unlisted phone rang stridently.
    Mason said, "That's the unlisted telephone. That'll be Paul Drake."
    Della Street nodded and hurried across to the instrument, picked it up and said, "Yes, Paul?"
    She nodded to Mason, who picked up the extension phone on his desk.
    "Hi, Paul," Mason said. "What's new?"
    "This fellow Dutton is something of a problem, Perry."
    "What about him?"
    "He's being hard to find."
    "I didn't think he'd be easy or I wouldn't be paying you fifty dollars a day to look him up."
    "Well, he's trying to be real hard to find. Someone is looking for him and I have an idea that someone is a process server with some papers to put right in the middle of Dutton's hot little hand."
    "And you think Dutton's hiding out to avoid that?"
    "He's hiding out to avoid something."
    "Where are you now, Paul?"
    "I'm in a telephone booth across the street from a service station about four blocks from Dutton's apartment. I have an idea I'm going to pick up his trail. While I was waiting I thought I'd telephone for instructions."
    "How come?"
    "Well, I became pretty well convinced he wasn't intending to go back to his apartment. There's a man sitting outside waiting. I looked up the license number on his car. He's a chap named Rodger Palmer. From the way he acts, I think he's a process server. He's sure anxious to see Dutton and he has lots of patience. He's just covering thз entrance to the apartment house. Also, the girl at the switchboard said Dutton had been in and out several times earlier in the day, carrying a big brief case each time."
    "Both in and out?" Mason asked.
    "Both in and out."
    "Could be he was moving stuff out and stashing it in the trunk of his automobile," Mason said.
    "That's the point," Drake said. "I figured he'd buy his gasoline around here somewhere, so I covered all the gasoline stations around and finally not only hit pay dirt but I may have hit a jackpot, as far as Dutton is concerned. I found the place where he buys his gasoline and has the service work done on his car. The car is there now being serviced. He told the attendant to change the oil, give it a good lube job and check all the tires-that he was going on a long trip."
    "Didn't say where?"
    "No, but the car is there and I have a stake-out on it."
    Mason said, "I want a line on Dutton, Paul. I'm mixed up in something with him and I may be skating on rather thin ice, ethically. A great deal depends on what kind of a guy he is, whether he's on the up-and-up or whether he's taking people for rides."
    "Well, I think he's getting ready to skip out."
    "All right, sit on the job," Mason said. "Follow him and find out where he's headed."
    "How strong do I go?"
    "As strong as you have to."
    "Suppose he heads out of town?"
    "Head out of town right after him, Paul."
    "I'll probably need some help."
    "Get it!'' "Suppose he