"Well, you've certainly put onthe bait," Drake said. "But I'll warn you, five hundred dollars willjust be an entering wedge in Gideon's mind."
"He's promised me that he won'tcome back, or call me or get in touch with me in any way if I send over thefive hundred dollars," Mason said.
Drake snorted his skepticaldisbelief.
"He has," Mason said,"given me his word of honour."
Drake groaned, got to his feet,said, "Kid yourself all you want to, Perry, but don't try kiddingme."
"Incidentally" Mason said,"your friend Gideon seems to be rather expert at picking up shadows. Hehad no difficulty whatever in picking up the two shadows you put on his tailwhen he left the office."
Drake made an exclamation ofannoyance. "Those were pretty smooth guys," he said. "In view ofthe fact that a rough shadow is on the job, I didn't think Gideon would spotthem."
"He spotted them," Masonsaid.
After a moment, Drake said, "Itold you that these fellows get pretty smart while they are in stir,Perry"
"I know," Mason said,"and Gideon, I think, was rather smart to start with. Let's hope hedoesn't outwit himself."
"You're really going to sendthat money?" Drake asked.
"I'm going to send it,"Mason said. "I believe Della is putting the money in an envelope rightnow."
Drake said something about a fooland his money being soon parted, and left the office.
Mason looked reassuringly at Della Street as she returned with a fat envelope in herhand.
"Everything okay, Della?"
"Everything okay. The messengeris on his way up here."
"Tell him to take this envelopeto Gideon at the Exman Hotel and not to bother about a receipt," Masonsaid.
"No receipt?" she asked."Not even for the envelope?"
"Nothing," Mason said,grinning. "We're gentlemen, dealing with each other as such. After all, Ihave Mr Gideon's word of honour."
Chapter 9
Thursday morning Mason entered theoffice and asked hopefully, "What do we hear from Gideon, Della?"
"Nothing."
"No letter, no telephone?"
"Nothing."
"Perhaps an anonymousletter?"
"No, not this morning."
Mason left his desk, walked over tothe window, looked down at traffic on the street below with frowningconcentration.
"Should we have heard?"Della asked.
"We should have heard,"Mason said. "I'm a little afraid that our friend Gideon has transferredhis attention to Mrs Horace Warren."
The lawyer started pacing the floor,said at length, "Its inconceivable that he would have the consummate nerveto go there, yet – Ring up Paul Drake and tell him to put two more men on thehouse," Mason said. "I want the license numbers of every automobilethat calls there and I want a description of every person who calls. Theoperatives will have to use binoculars and keep in the distance."
"Anything else?" Dellaasked.
"That's all," Mason said.And then added grimly, "At the moment."
By mid afternoon Mason was restive,pacing the office floor, frowning, reacting nervously every time the phonerang.
At three o'clock Mason's phone rang. Della said, "Yes?Hello?" then nodded to Perry Mason.
"Gideon?" Mason asked.
"Paul Drake," she said.
Mason picked up his telephone."Yes, Paul, what's new?"
"My face is red," Drakesaid.
Mason tilted back in his swivelchair, crossed his ankles on the desk, and seemed suddenly to lose all histension.
"Why, what's the matter,Paul?" he asked solicitously.
"That damned Gideon!" PaulDrake said. "I told you that these fellows get smart in stir. This guy hasbecome too smart for his britches."
"Meaning he was too smart foryou?" Mason asked.
"He was too smart for mymen," Drake said, "and then – Well, damn it, yes, Perry. He was toosmart for me."
"What happened?" Masonasked.
"The guy went down to aused-car lot. He looked over some used cars, then he purchased one and paidthree hundred dollars down."
"In cash?" Mason asked.
"Of course, in cash. Hell'sbells, it was out of the money you'd given him."
"Well, I'm glad to see he usedit to buy something useful," Mason said. "After all, a man needs anautomobile to run around in these days."
"Now, wait a minute,Perry," Paul Drake said. "This is pretty damned serious. It's abrand-new stunt as far as I'm concerned."
"Go on," Mason said."Or why don't you come down to the office and tell me about it? Della willmake you a cup of coffee and -"
"Because I don't want to faceyou," Drake said. "Also I'm sitting here in my office with fourtelephones working, trying my damnedest to get on his trail again."
"Well, what happened to thegovernment men?" Mason asked. "Weren't they on the job?"
"My God," Drake said,"there were three government smooth shadows on the job, one rough shadowand my two shadows. That made six shadows that were tailing that bird."
"And he walked away from all ofthem?"
"I'll say he did."
"What did he do?"
"Well, he got this automobile,made a down payment on it, signed the contract, and started out.
"Of course we felt that sincehe had that automobile it was going to be the old run-around, that he'd gothrough signals just as they were changing and all that stuff. My men felt thatway about it and apparently the government men did, too."
"How do you handle a situationof that sort?" Mason asked.
"With enough shadows, it's acinch," Drake said. "We had one shadow get ahead of him and one staybehind him. We had him bracketed. Then whenever we'd come to an intersectionwith a signal one of my men would go ahead and the other would stay behind. Andof course the rough shadow stayed behind. In that way if Gideon went through asignal just as it was changing, or took a chance on running a red light, theshadows could wait patiently behind because there were shadows ahead to pickhim up."
"What about the governmentmen?"
"They were playing it the sameway," Drake said. "My men spotted at least one of the government men,and that government man had spotted him, because he gave him the high sign."
"And Gideon got away from adeal of that sort?" Mason asked.
"I'll say he got away fromit."
"How?"
"He ditched the rough shadowand one of the smooth shadows," Drake said. "He seemed to feel he hadit made. He drove to th airport, parked the car with the motor running andtipped the attendant to let it stay there for five minutes."
"Go on," Mason said.
"Well, that was a cinch,"Drake said. "The remaining government men came up and made a kick aboutthe car being there in a place where there was supposed to be no parking. Theysquawked a little bit and insisted the attendant drive it away.
"While they were doing allthis, of course, they were putting an electric bug on the car so they couldfollow him without crowding him. With one of those electric bugs you can beseveral blocks away and still follow a guy."
"Go on," Mason said,"what happened? Did they follow him into the air terminal?"
"No, they didn't," Drakesaid, "because when a man has just paid three hundred dollars down on anautomobile you don't think he's going to walk away and leave it with the motorrunning."
Mason started to laugh.
"Go ahead and laugh, damnit!" Drake said irritably
"So you don't know where hewent?" Mason asked.
"Of course we know where hewent," Drake said. "We're not that dumb. We didn't follow him intothe air terminal but we went in and started milling around and we watched everyoutgoing plane that was scheduled to depart within the next thirtyminutes."
"Well," Mason said,"if he went in, he had to come out."
"He went out all right,"Drake said. "He walked right out the door, met another guy, identifiedhimself, and they walked twenty yards to a helicopter that was sitting therewith the motor running. They both got in and the helicopter took off and wewere left on the ground gawking."