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He let her in and she sagged with relief The o in Mandalay she had finally got up the courage to leave hioon! She had ducked into the Strand when she realized he was following her, and she didn’t know if she’d shaken him, and she was afraid to look Could he possibly check the lobby and see if her swinish husband was there? She described the , with a scar on one cheek, even told hoas dressed Could he be an angel and see if he was downstairs, or even lurking on the street outside? And could she wait in his room while he looked?

When he hesitated, she said, "But you do not knowthat is valuable Do not worry that you will hurt s! And please, take this with you" And she twisted the ring off her finger and insisted that he take it in pawn

Once he was out the door, she swung into action With the chain belt securing the door against a sudden return, she stripped his bed and felt along the top seam at the end of the mattress until she found where I’d cut it open, side the seam She reached in and felt around and drew out the brick wrapped in foil and the smaller parcel done up in oilskin

They went in her purse, and no har when he returned, as they were nothing he’d ever seen before But of course he did no such thing There was plenty of tiet the bed back as it was, plenty of time to catch her breath before he returned to tell her the coast was clear; there was no sign of her future ex-husband, not in the lobby, not in the wood-paneled bar, not in the street outside And, speaking of that bar, it was the best place in town for a cool drink, and did she have a minute to spare?

"So I let hiht, wasn’t it, Evan?"

"It was only gracious of you"

"That is what I thought It was very elegant There was a piano, with a Chinese in and tonic and asked me to join him for dinner"

"You must have been tempted"

"No," she said "It could have been a pleasant evening, with good food and plenty to drink And he was an attractive lish"

"With black hair," I said, as a sinking feeling came over me "Except at the temples, where it had turned as white as snow"

"Why do you say that, Evan?"

"It’s true, isn’t it?"

"Not at all," she said "His hair was blond likein front, and thin on top"

"Oh"

"What made you think-"

"Never mind," I said "Anyway, you found him attractive"

"Moderately so I could have spent a pleasant evening with him But when I woke up I would still be in Burma"

"You’ll still be in Burma tos after that"

"But you will take me with you, my little Vanya?"

"I’ll try"

"And these will help us, this treasure from inside the mattress? What is inside these?"

"I don’t know," I said "I’uess what’s in the brick I don’t know about the other"

"Aren’t you going to open them?"

I opened the brick first, and I can’t say I was surprised by what I found It was indeed a brick, white in color, with the slightest yellowish tint to it I scratched it with rains on ue

"Bitter," I said "Must be Lariah I may be closer to the truth than you would think I have to assume this is heroin, but I have no idea how pure it is Somebody may have stepped on it"

"Stepped on it?"

"With or without shoes," I said "Stepping on itit They process a lot of opiule, part of which is in northeast Burma And they don’t cut it there because it’s si it through Rangoon, so who knohat the source of this particular brick is, or how close to pure it is?"

"What does that have to do with Lariaar That’s a popular staple in the drug trade I wonder what effect it has on a junkie who happens to be lactose-intolerant?" I shrugged "Probably the least of his problems The point is, they also commonly add some quinine, which is a component of Lariaar and quinine, because aste good heroin just to fra?"

"So you don’t think it’s heroin after all?"

"No," I said "I think itIt was probably confiscated in the first place, and they expected to get it back when they arrested me That’s why they were so upset when they searched the roo their heroin back, and so to want to knohat happened to it"