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He took one step inside, his eyes peering at my bed, and I was ready to strike when his jaorked spasmodically and he started down I never touched hied motion, fell neatly forward and smacked his head on the floor

He slept for ten hours He ca by the side of the bed when consciousness returned He tensed his muscles and strained, and veins stood out on his teht for a moment that he would burst his bonds I had tied him up securely with half a dozen electrical cords and Mrs Penner’s fifty feet of clothesline, and even so I wasn’t sure it would hold hiain, his eyes opened, and he saw me He became extremely scrutable A full complement of emotions played over his handsome face

He said, "You were ready for me"

"I was"

"You weren’t asleep"

"I wasn’t"

"You hit "

"Never touched you"

"I feel like I been drugged"

"That’s what happened, all right"

"With what?"

"Opiuathered a little of it every tiht you had dysentery, Tanner cat"

"It was harvest time on the old plantation," I went on "Did you ever see how they gather opium? A week or so after the petals drop they cut into the fruit Then they let it go on ripening, and the good stuff drains out of the opiuain and collect it"

"And you put it in my coffee"

"Uh-huh"

"How’d you knotoo much After all, it was completely raw opiu The only thing I orried about was that you would taste it in the coffee"

"That was pretty horrible tasting coffee, all right"

"I didn’t think it would have as much effect as it did It probably wouldn’t have if you hadn’t been close to the edge of exhaustion to begin with Even so, you held out for a long ti it would take the edge off your reflexes, even things out a little"

He thought this over "Well, Tanner cat," he said at length, "I reckon I can see where it all lays You want to do me out of my half of the Retriever’s treasury And you also want to make sure I don’t infor is-"

"Wrong"

"Huh?"

"The Chief never wore a hat in his life Bed-Stuy is a part of Brooklyn And you ain’t Bowman cat, Bowman cat You’re the Glorious Retriever of Modonoland, and do I call you Knanda or Ndoro or both?"

Chapter 15

After a few lad to have that out of the way, Tanner Actually I was surprised the deception succeeded as long as it did It was a difficult role to play" His manner was entirely different now, the voice rich and resonant, the tones properly pear-shaped He sounded like the announcer on the old Shadow radio program – Who knohat evil lurks in the hearts of men?

I said, "The Shadow do"

"Pardonthat the role was not an easy one for h type There was a raw primitive quality about hiht to pose as hireeting nal"

"Ah, yes It was one of the items the man disclosed to me Not the only one" He srin he had used during thethe part And it did take you in for rather a long ti ti in his colloquialisms, too many outdated phrases mixed in with newer expressions "And too ht have picked up through exposure to you, not just bits he ht have affected, but turns of phrase that would only be possible to someone whose education was British rather than American"

"And I had fancied myself equipped with a keen ear for just that"

"Oh, you’re good at it You sound rightto kno to use the regionalisionaliss, too The absolute fascination with Pluirl And Bowman did like women, you know"

"But he wouldn’t be struck by the idea of a ot to you It’s a nice enough color, but it’s not as rare as you made it seem Not in America, certainly Soht-skinned as Plum is But that kind of racial mixture is rare in Modonoland"

"I never considered that"

"It didn’t surprise Plu considered exotic and unusual But in America -"

He nodded "And of course I was completely at sea e discussed your chief and his ht be a test but I could only play it by ear" He frowned "You say you knew for some time"

"Yes"

"That I was not Bowman? Or that I was Knanda Ndoro?"

"Both, really The clincher was your story about how the Retriever died"