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one I have coming is okay," Drake said.
    Mason said, "We're going to be here at this cafй for another half hour; then we'll go up to the office and wait for your call there. Try to give us a report by tenthirty, because we'll knock it off shortly after that."
    "Okay," Drake said, "will do."
    Mason hung up the phone and related what he had learned to Della Street.
    She made a little grimace.
    "Meaning?" Mason asked.
    "Meaning that Desere Ellis is or has been infatuated with Hedley and that's not the way things should be. I'm pulling for Dutton."
    "And so?" Mason asked.
    "So," she said, "Dutton is waiting for Hedley to go home. As soon as Hedley leaves, Dutton will go up to Desere Ellis' apartment and she'll know intuitively that he was sitting outside waiting for Hedley to go home. That puts two strikes against Dutton as far as any woman is concerned. A woman wants a man who will chart his own course and assert himself; not one who will skulk in the shadows and wait until the coast is clear before he makes a move."
    "Of course," Mason pointed out, "it may be that Dutton isn't afraid to face Hedley for a showdown, but he's planning to tell Desere the whole business and he doesn't want Hedley to know about Desere's financial affairs."
    "In that case Fred Hedley's mother will step into the picture and things will move fast after that," Della Street said. "That is, if she has an idea there's more money in the trust than appears to be the case at the present time."
    Mason raised his wineglass. "I give you the Mexican toast," he said, "salud y pesetas y amor sin suegras."
    "What is that?" Della Street asked.
    "That," Mason said, "is a toast that Mexican gentlemen give to each other in the privacy of their clubs."
    "What does it mean?"
    "It means health, wealth and love without mothersin-law."
    Della Street burst out laughing. "The man who invented that must have known Mrs. Hedley," she said.
    "Or someone pretty much like her," Mason agreed.
    They finished a leisurely dinner, and Mason was just signing the check when the waiter came hurrying up with the telephone. He plugged it in and said, "An emergency, Mr. Mason."
    Mason picked up the phone, said, "Yes. What is it?"
    Drake's voice said, "You'd better get up here, Perry. Quick!"
    "Where is here?"
    "That address I gave you, the Doberman Apartments. If you want to protect your client, you'd better get here. There's hell to pay."
    "We'll be right there."
    "I'll be waiting," Drake told him. "I'll be at the front of the apartment house. It's on Locks Street."
    "Coming right away," Mason said.
    Mason grabbed Della Street's arm, "Emergency," he told her.
    "What's happened?"
    "Paul didn't say. Just said we'd better get up there, quick, if we wanted to protect our client. Come on, let's go.
    Mason signaled the headwaiter, who in turn signaled the doorman, and the lawyer's car was in front waiting by the time Mason and Della Street reached the outer door of the restaurant.
    Mason, an expert driver, jockeyed for position at the traffic signals, but they encountered some heavy traffic and it was some twenty minutes before they reached the address.
    Drake was waiting for them on the curb.
    "Well," he said, "you're too late."
    "What happened?" Mason asked.
    Drake said, "The fellow with the beard came out, got in his car and started off. Just as you had predicted, Dutton didn't follow him. Me jumped out of his car and hurried into the apartment house.
    "Now, I don't know whether Hedley knew that Dutton was waiting and wanted to trap him, or whether Hedley had forgotten something, but Dutton hadn't been in the house five minutes when Hedley came driving back, double-parked his car, jumped out and went into the apartment house like a guy carrying the mail."
    "And what happened?"
    "Plenty," Drake said. "A woman ran out on a balcony on the third floor and started screaming for the police. I guess someone telephoned… Anyhow, a police radio patrol car came driving up, and about that time Dutton came