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Stewart G Bedford	Della Street	Grace's landlady
Elsa Griffin	Paul Drake	Two Drake operatives
Ann Roann Bedford	Dr Leroy Shelby	Uniformed officer in court
Binney Denham	Harry Elston	Judge Harmon Strouse
Delbert	Sid Carson	Jurors
Dinner guests	[Ann's aunt]	Various routine witnesses
Ann Roann's butler	Mason's garage attendant	Ass't D A Vincent Hadley
Banker	Lieutenant Tragg	Drive-yourself agency manager
Geraldine Corning aka . . .	Sergeant Holcomb	Drive-yourself agency employee
Staylonger Motel manager, Morrison Brems	Hamilton Burger	Court bailiff
Thomas G Farland	Holcomb's fingerprint expert	Officer Richard Judson
Waiter	Drake's switchboard girl	Judson's partner
Perry Mason	. . . aka Grace Compton	Arthur Merriam
	Drake's operative	Department store gun salesman

Walter J R Camp, MD, PhD, Professor of Toxicology and Pharmacology at the University of Illinois, Coroner's Toxicologist of Cook County and Secretary of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences is the subject and dedicatee of Erle Stanley Gardner's Foreword

When there is a butler, is he always the crime-committer. Did he do it? Did Ann Rohann's butler listen over the phone and protect his employer?

When did credit cards first come into use? Aside from Diners Club, the first cards were, I believe, issued by gasoline companies. Here one is used at a gas station, another example of Gardner's revealing details of cultural history.

One.	Stewart G Bedford enters his office and sees the newspaper placed there by secretary Elsa Griffin with a photograph of his wife, Ann Roann Bedford, facing him. Elsa makes him admit Binney Denham, who tries to blackmail him for his friend Delbert who wants instead to sell proof of Ann's police record to scandalous magazines. He says he'll think it over.
Two.	A tête-à-tête dinner with his wife strains Bedford, who slips a silver cocktail tray into his room then out of the house the next morning. At his office, he learns that Elsa has overheard his discussion with Denham because he left the intercom on. She, who has taken a correspondence course in how to be a detective, helps him lift prints left by his wife, and they match those on Denham's police records. Denham doesn't call Back at home some friends have joined Bedford, his wife in a "hostess gown which plunged daringly to a low V in front", and the butler. Then Denham's call comes. Delbert is going to the publishers first thing in the morning. Bedford says he'll get twenty thousand dollars from the bank in the morning. Denham hangs up, then Bedford hears another click. Was it his wife, or the butler whom Ann had hired, who overheard the call? He takes a snub-nosed, blued steel .38 caliber gun from his dresser and puts it into his brief case. As he descends the stairs, he notices Ann in the butler's pantry inspecting the silver tray, which hadn't been washed and showed that it has been inspected.
Three.	Bedford signs two hundred one-hundred-dollar traveler's checks during which the banker tries unsuccessfully to enter into conversation. Back at his office he is warned by Elsa that a "Blonde, nice complexion, beautiful legs, plenty of curves, big limpid eyes, a dumb look, a little perfume, and that's all" is waiting for him. It is Geraldine Corning who has come to take Bedford and his money. They drive out Wiltshire, turn north, with Binney Denham following them for a time. Eventually they decide on the Staylonger motel, where he registers as S G Wilfred and the manager gives him keys to connecting rooms fifteen and sixteen. While Gerry is occupied, Stewart writes a note; "Call this number and say I am at The Staylonger Motel" and wraps it in a twenty-dollar bill. Gerry's suitcase is new, stamped "G C." The two kibitz a while, then go out for dinner. At the restaurant Bedford gives his note to the waiter. Back at the Staylonger, they both fall asleep under the influence of a drug slipped into Gerry's bottle of liquor. During his sleep he hears voices, and an auto motor. When he wakes up, it is dark outside. He finds Binney Denham shot through the chest in the adjacent room.
Four.	Stu panics and, afraid to go out the front way past the manager's office, slips through barbed wire fencing at the back, tearing his trousers. He is surprised by a car; Elsa is driving it. She was in unit twelve, saw him go through the fence. She has Perry Mason waiting for him.
Five.	Perry Mason and "Della Street, his trusted confidential secretary" await Bedford, who arrives and, prompted by Elsa, reveals all. She has the license of Gerry's car. Mason phones Paul Drake, tells him to find the car which he'll have Elsa take to criminologist Dr Leroy Shelby who will gather all evidence, then put in other stuff so some other criminologist won't get wrong ideas. He then tells Bedford to go home and give his wife a good tale. He tells Elsa to report the murder, then get out of circulation.
Six.	At one in the morning, Drake reports. Denham has a safe-deposit box in a twenty-four hour bank with one Harry Elston who, the previous night at 9:45, went to the box. The police have the car, which was rented by a mousy little man. At the Staylonger, a girl rented unit twelve which a prowler entered later. Denham was killed by a shot from a .38 caliber revolver; the bullet has been recovered. The police know of a man who slipped through the barbed wire fence; they have his footprints. Elsa has apparently returned to Mason's office and heard all this for, after Drake leaves, they agree that Drake had a good description of the "occupant of unit twelve." Mason suggests that she go back with a fingerprint kit, lift all she can find, wipe the place clean and return.
Seven.	Drake says Elston has disappeared. The police have found Denham's apartment, with forty thousand dollars hidden under his rug, so they surmise he was involved in blackmail. Elsa returns with the fingerprints which go to Drake's specialist; she's washed unit twelve. She tells Mason she's always had an interest in crime, and wonders if she could help her boss. Couldn't some planted evidence incriminate Denham's accomplice?
Eight.	Mason gets fingerprint expert Sid Carson's report. Only four are not identified. Mason matches them to Ann Rohann Bedford's police record.
Nine.	Mason meets Mrs Bedford at a service station and confronts her with her fingerprints at the motel and her police record. She admits her earlier indiscretion, of pawning jewelry and then having to claim it was stolen when her aunt found it missing, and thus she committed insurance fraud. She was simply trying to get ahead in the world, and needed to be among a better crowd of people. She had been paying Denham blackmail, and knew about her husband's previous affair with Elsa. She didn't hear any conversation on the phone, but thought she recognized Binney's voice. She love being Stewart's toy, his show girl, and says Mason must keep her past from coming to light. Does she think he's a magician? Her husband does.
Ten.	Mason's garage attendant waves frantically to the attorney as he drives into the parking lot. The police are looking for him. He goes in anyway, and there, waiting, is Lieutenant Tragg of homicide. Tragg tells Mason what the police already know, and that Sergeant Holcomb is, of course, on the case, as is D A Hamilton Burger. He notes that the police check the nearest hamburger stand, so know when Drake or Mason is up late.
Eleven.	Perry instructs Della to call Stewart Bedford and tell him not to try to reach him. Della argues that he should tell Bedford that his wife is involved, but the lawyer reminds her Bedford is his client and he's in love with Mrs Bedford.
Twelve.	Mason stops at Drake's. He wants Drake to find Denham's blond girl friend. Her initials are G C, for Gloria or Grace Somebody-or-other.
Thirteen.	Almost as soon as he's showered and gotten into bed, Mason's phone rings. Morrison Brems, the manager of The Staylonger Motel has identified Bedford's photograph. Mason hurries to Bedford's office, but is too late; Sergeant Holcomb is already there, with a fingerprint man and Morrison Brems, manager of the Staylonger. Bedford has refused to give Holcomb his fingers for printing, but the expert uses an ashtray, finds a match with what they have from the motel. Instead of following Mason's instructions to shut up, Bedford confesses to a hit-and-run six years earlier, for which he was paying blackmail to Denham. Holcomb arrests him anyway.
Fourteen.	Drake's switchboard girl tells Mason that Drake is in his office. He is asleep on his couch, but the phone wakes him. Geraldine Corning is Grace Compton. They head out to her apartment, find her in lounging pajamas. She is originally friendly, tells Mason and Drake her story, most of which is already known, but adds that he double-crossed her, and that she's gotten religion. She gets annoyed when it becomes clear they could make her the fall guy. Back outside, Mason has Drake put his man on her tail.
Fifteen.	Jail. Bedford tells Mason how he knew about the hit-and-run victim he used as his way of keeping the press from digging into why he was paying blackmail. He wants Mason to go after the "other" woman. Mason counters with Gerry, and Bedford says she's a good girl, he knows her. He's sure his gun was not the murder weapon, but that the "other" woman brought her own and killed Denham.
Sixteen.	Yawning, Mason returns to his office, finds a rested Della. Drake reports that Bedford is asking for an immediate trial so he can clear his name. The box Denham and Elston had is full of useless Denham stuff. Grace is on the way to Acapulco, but is in a disguise. Mason sends Della to the airport, to engage Grace in conversation and stay with her. Mason tells Drake he doesn't want to convict Grace, just acquit Stewart.
Seventeen.	Della has gotten nowhere with Grace. Drake has rented the apartment of Grace Compton from the landlady using two operatives. He has several lifted fingerprints. Mason takes the cards with pencilled numbers, selects four, has Della put the same numbers on them in ink that Elsa put on her four cards of Ann Bedford.
Eighteen.	Judge Harmon Strouse gives Mason his peremptory challenge, then Burger, and asks that the jurors be sworn in. Hamilton Burger waives his opening statement, calls Thomas G Farland, the officer who found the body. Mason gets him to admit it was a woman who phoned in the murder call. Various routine witnesses identify the body of Denham, and that a .38 caliber bullet fell from his coat when the body was moved. Brems testifies to his seeing Bedford as Wilfred and Wilfred's wife come and go and return, and her leave, and seeing Denham. Mason adroitly forces Brems to reveal the prowler who went to unit twelve, even as assistant D A Vincent Hadley objects strenuously. Following Brems the manager of the drive-yourself agency testifies to the renting and return of the car and an employee describes the woman. The fingerprint expert admits that the fingerprints he collected in the motel rooms could be of the murderer or not. The bailiff calls Richard Judson, the officer who had inspected the Bedford house after the murder testifies as to how he and his partner searched the premises. They found the gun in the drain in the garage floor.

Della Street	Defense attorney, Mortimer Dean Howland	Drake's secretary
"Miss 'Cash' "	Balfour butler	Roger Farris
Perry Mason	Gertie	Deputy sheriff
Theodore Balfour	Guthrie's wife, Dorla Balfour	Florence Ingle impersonator
Red-haired fortyish woman, later Myrtle Anne Haley	alias Marilyn Keith	Taxi driver
Chestnut-haired younger woman, alias	Addison Balfour	Autopsy surgeon
Judge Mervin Spencer Cadwell	Paul Drake	Firearms expert
Court bailiff	Jackson Eagan	Other expert witnesses
Spectators	Car rental agency people	DA's office investigator
Jurors	Sleepy Hollow Motel people	Court reporter
Officer George Dempster	Unidentified police officer	Collector for the syndicate
Prosecutor (Roger Farris)	Florence Landis Ingle	Boles' assistant
Balfour servant	Two stenographers	Eagan's widow
Guthrie Balfour	Telephone operator	Hamilton Burger
Officer Dawson	Banner Boles

The Foreword to this novel departs from a dedication to an individual and instead honors a lengthy list of citizens who formed the Texas Law Enforcement Foundation.

The DBC issue misspells two words, including "annonymous."

Here's a good one; Paul Drake calls Perry Mason instead of the other way 'round.

ONE.	Della Street answers a call from a woman wanting Mason to sit in on a trial. She gives her name as "Cash." Mason listens to her story about a case involving Theodore Balfour. He sets a fee of $500 to cover office expenses and the need to cancel appointments. Miss Cash is a secretary, and can only afford a hundred dollars, out of her Acapulco vacation money. Mason is intrigued, says he'll take her on. She says a red-haired fortyish woman will be sitting next a chestnut-haired younger woman in the fourth row, and they will save a seat by placing coats on it.
TWO.	Judge Mervin Spencer Cadwell enters the courtroom, the court bailiff bangs his gavel, spectators and jurors seat themselves and officer George Dempster returns to the stand. He tells the prosecutor that he went to the Balfours to look at a Balfour car, a servant living over the garage admitted him, and he found the car, owned by Guthrie Balfour, with a broken right front headlamp. He was told that the car was driven by Ted Balfour. Defense attorney, Mortimer Dean Howland, objects and is sustained. Dempster and his partner, officer Dawson, had the Balfour butler arouse Ted. The butler brought the three coffee. Over objections, it is brought out that Balfour was being driven by a woman whom he can't remember. Howland cross-examines. He is very aggressive, picks a point, backs up to catch the witness off-guard. For instance, when the witness is asked if he went to the Balfour's to get a confession, and the witness says no, Howland ask if the witness didn't go out to the house - yes - and then, didn't he try to get a confession. The witness is thus made to look a bit foolish, or as if he's trying to conceal something. On the difference between admission and confession, he gets the officer to look as if he remembers only what is against the defendant, and forget what is helpful. Myrtle Anne Haley, the red-haired woman two seats from Mason, is called.
THREE.	Myrtle was driving behind Balfour between 12:30 and 1:30 the morning of the twentieth, going west on Sycamore Road. She saw Balfour's car weaving. She shot past it, then saw one headlight go dark, then come back on, in her rearview mirror. She wrote the license in her notebook, which the prosecutor gave back to her this morning. Howland attacks her about her unscrewing a fountain pen with one hand, writing so neatly in the dark and so on. When she returns to her seat, she asks the chestnut-haired younger woman next Mason if she did all right. A nod indicates yes.
FOUR.	Summaries. Howland preys on the witnesses writing in her notebook while driving, and the prosecution didn't even ask if a man was driving the car, or a woman. He demands "a verdict of NOT GUILTY!" The jury goes out. Howland comes over to Mason, asks if the lawyer is involved professionally, an notes that the body has never been identified. They look at the notebook, noting the evenness of the writing. Mason agrees that there might be a hung jury.
FIVE.	Della has the switchboard patched through, since Gertie has gone home. Finally Mason's client calls, but Mason demands she prove she is that client, so she must come to the office. While waiting, Guthrie Balfour phones in from Chihuahua City in Mexico. He's on an expedition. He says Ted must not be convicted and he'll fly his wife home to see Mason at nine in the morning. Then the client, chestnut-haired Marilyn Keith, arrives. Mason tells her the prosecution witness, Myrtle Anne Haley, was probably lying, and proves it by having Keith write a 6 while sitting, then two while walking. They don't match, but the two 6s written by Haley are perfect. She's thankful. When she leaves, Della suggests that Marilyn is in love, and frightened.
SIX.	Della has the newspapers. The jury was hung, but the prosecutor and Howland arranged a deal by which the sentence of guilty by the judge would be suspended if Balfour paid a $500 fine. Della announces Dorla Balfour, assuring her boss he'll fall for her. He merely gives her the newspapers. She gets annoyed, stamps on them, then apologizes to Mason. She's angry that loudmouthed egoist Howland tried the case. Mason explains that he apparently got a good deal. She then explains that her husband Guthrie is not the rich one, Addison, who is dying, is. He was given six months, has taken eighteen. She's certain Addison will disinherit Ted if he learns he's been convicted of killing a man with an auto. Ted was not driving his sports car the night of the accident. She can get Howland off the case, and writes Mason a thousand dollar check as retainer.
SEVEN.	Paul Drake phones Mason because he's heard the attorney is interested. The hit-and-run victim has been identified as Jackson Eagan. The car rental agency people took no notice because there was a large deposit. The Sleepy Hollow motel people didn't care because the rent was paid in advance. A police officer noticed the code on a key in Eagan's pocket; it was the only thing that could lead to identification.
EIGHT.	Dorla is back in Mason's office. She's seen Ted. He was given a loaded drink. A "cut trick with dark chestnut hair" drove him home between ten and eleven from a party given by Florence Ingle. She's paid off Howland and has a letter from him to Mason that is quite friendly. Dorla has arranged for Mason to see Addison Balfour.
NINE.	The butler greets Mason and takes him to the office where two stenographers and a telephone operator are busy. Marilyn Keith is the appointment secretary; Mason acts as if he never met her. She warns him to be quick with Addison Balfour. Mason meets the man "made of colorless wax" with "high cheekbones" "gaunt face" and "sunken eyes." Balfour tells him it was just a bluff to Dorla that Ted would be disinherited, for Ted is the last of the Balfours. He wants Ted to fight. Balfour Allied Associates will pay what is necessary. He say "{Guthrie wanted a good-looker. He had money. He bought one." When he wakes up he'll marry Florence Ingle. When Mason leaves, Keith has him phone Della. He's referred to Drake, who says the body has been exhumed, and "the man has been killed by a small-caliber, high-powered bullet" which was still in the skull. Keith admits to have been driving the car. She warns Mason of Banner Boles, Balfour trouble-shooter who will manipulate facts. She's afraid for Ted. Mason leaves, phones Drake in privacy, learns that Ted is already in police custody.
TEN.	Mason tells Drake to get the jump on the police, and find out about Jackson Eagan. Then he and Della go out to the Balfours, conjecturing along the way. Dorla takes them into Ted's room where they pry open a gun case. Mason finds a .22 automatic which, after smelling, he thinks might be the weapon. He asks Dorla about the trip to Mexico; she left on short notice without a stitch of clothes. As the police approach, they grab a tape recorder and separate box from the closet and escape.
ELEVEN.	Drake reports to having located Eagan's town, Chico, north of San Francisco. Mason pulls out the recorder and Drake explains its operating speeds. They listen to a tape and find only a few words. In the other box is a "wall snooper." So Drake surmises the user was snooping, then erasing the tape. Drake's secretary brings a note stating Jackson died two years earlier and was shipped home for burial in a closed coffin.
TWELVE.	Judge Cadwell gets agreement from prosecutor Roger Farris that Mason may interview his client but Mason refuses to the stipulation of the writ of habeas corpus being vacated. Mason argues that Balfour has been convicted of manslaughter and that jeopardy cannot be doubled by a charge of first-degree murder. Cadwell calls a recess and has a deputy sheriff take Balfour to the law library.
THIRTEEN.	Ted tells how Uncle Guthrie headed to Tarahumare country, into barrancas so inaccessible that probably no white man had been there before. Mason prods him to see if Dorla is after him, but he doesn't know. He denies knowing about the tape recorder. He, as had Dorla, repeats the point that Addison would get to dislike a car and get a new one of a different make. He and some friends, then Marilyn Keith, showed up to see Addison and Dorla off. They'd come from a party at Florence Ingle's place. Florence hates Dorla and was friendly with Addison. They went back to the party and he began to see double after a drink. Florence was married, but her husband died in a private plane crash while he was off prospecting. Ted has noticed the car has an extra twenty-five miles on it. He had his gun in the glove compartment, because he was afraid of a collector coming for his gambling debts. Mason tells him to talk to no one unless his lawyer is present. Judge Cadwell returns, says Mason has a good point, but the situation might have been engineered, so he'll let a higher court decide. Drake catches Mason as the lawyer leaves the court. Florence Ingle bought the tape recorder. She's disappeared, having taken a plane to Miami, then a person took her place and went on to Atlantic City. The real Florence is in Riverside under her maiden name of Landis.
FOURTEEN.	Mason goes to Riverside, startles Ingle at the pool by calling her by her married name. She says Ted came to her asking for twenty thousand dollars. She didn't give it to him, hoping he'd grow up. She thinks Ted killed the man and tried to make it look like an accident. He brings up the tape recorder and she denies knowledge. Mason gives her a subpoena. She now says she's protecting someone. Dorla is a tramp. When Guthrie is out of town, she got into circulation. Guthrie had caught on. He thought he could catch Dorla so, when she got off the train in Pasadena, so did he. He followed her to the Sleepy Hollow Motel. When she left, he confronted Jackson Eagan. A fight ensued, and he killed the man. He fled, called Florence, who flew on a commercial flight to Phoenix , then flew the company plane back to the company airfield. Meanwhile Dorla went back to the motel, found the body, and called Banner Boles to take care of it. Dorla then flew to Tucson, with a murder rap to hold over Guthrie. Boles could figure that a drunk-driving charge against Ted was better than a murder charge against Guthrie. Florence shows Mason a telegram from Guthrie saying he and Dorla have reached a full agreement. She says, of course, Mason couldn't drag this story out of her on the witness stand.
FIFTEEN.	Addison has decided that Banner Boles should become active in the problem. Boles insists it be on neutral ground. Perry sends Della to Paul, to check Eagan, especially the driver's license thumbprint. When Boles arrives at Mason's office, Perry has him remove his watch, then takes the miniature wire recorder which is connected to it from Boles. The get into a taxi to talk privately. Boles gives Mason everything that was in Eagan's pockets, driver's license, drive-yourself car agency contract, a broken watch which stopped at 1:32, Sleepy Hollow Motel receipt and other items. Boles explains that Balfour Allied Associates is a large, rich company and it is privately held by Balfours only. Dorla would wreck this if she got stock. He tells a tale similar to Ingle's. Guthrie had the recorder, and used it in the room next Dorla and Jackson. He confronted Eagan and killed him. Boles then sent him with the company plane to Phoenix where he joined the train. Boles dragged the body around and smashed it up. He took the rug from the room into his car, moved the rug from Addison's room into Eagan's room. Dorla returned. Boles told her he had a tape which proved her infidelity. He also got a written statement from Eagan then, in a scuffle, shot him in self-defense. After Ted returned, he had Dorla take the car out and smash the body, thus getting her involved up to her pretty little eyebrows. He then sent Dorla to Tucson to join the train and give Guthrie an alibi. But she double-crossed him. She planted the car key in Ted's pocket before leaving, undressing him and making it look like he'd gone out. Myrtle Anne Haley, a Balfour employee, was instructed as to what she should testify. Boles tells Mason this is what he must supporet. Mason says he'll serve the best interests of Ted Balfour and won't suborn perjury. Boles stops the cab, gets out, slams the door.
SIXTEEN.	Addison Balfour terminates Mason's connection with Balfour Allied Associates and his $100,000 fee. Marilyn Keith, however, pleads with him to see Ted, who wants Mason to continue, whatever the cost. She offers him $525, all she has, and says that, though she's been fired, she'll find a job and pay a percentage. Mason tears up the check, saying she'll need it until she gets a job.
SEVENTEEN.	Judge Cadwell says he had hoped the case would be assigned another judge. He thinks "the real interests of the defendant will in no way be curtailed by" his ruling against the double jeopardy argument of Mason. Roger Farris calls an autopsy surgeon, a firearms expert and other expert witnesses. Mason is admonished by the judge for not cross-examining. Farris then states that Myrtle Anne Haley, witness for the People, has disappeared, and he wishes to have her testimony read into the record. An investigator from the DA's office testifies as to Haley's disappearance, probably under pressure from the Balfour company. Her testimony is read into the record by the court reporter. Banner Boles comes to the stand, and lies. He states that he saw Guthrie Balfour off on the train for El Paso. Also Dorla Balfour. He went back to his downtown office, got a call from Ted Balfour at an intersection near the accident. He told Ted t wait, but he didn't. Then, about 1:50, Boles went to the Balfour's, found the car with a smashed right headlight. He found Ted on bed with his shoes on. He woke Ted, learned he'd been gambling and the syndicate was after him for $20,000. Ted tried to raise the money, failed, but knew a trustee who could give him the money would soon be in town. A woman drove him home after the party. He thought he'd go out to see if the trustee was back in town but found the collector at the garage. He had his pistol with him and, in a scuffle, shot the man. The man was not dead. He drove out to the state highway and phoned Boles. Then he found the man dead, so created the hit-and-run situation. He tried to call Boles, got an assistant. Then he got to Boles and asked him to take charge. Boles went to the scene, but the police were already there. He went back to Balfours place and helped Ted into bed, and took the papers Ted had taken off the body. When he discovered the next morning that Ted was already interrogated, he did nothing. The judge wants to know what was done with the papers. Boles says he gave them to Perry Mason. The judge calls a recess and tells Farris and Mason to come to the bench. Mason gives the judge the papers, and the judge inspectsthem, calls them evidence. Mason asks "of what?" The judge produces the driving license of Jackson Eagan. Mason says it is not important, since Eagan died two years before. [Now the reader should be able to figure it all out!] The judge suggests mason has withheld evidence, but Mason simply states he'll meet that charge "when it is properly made, at the proper time and at the proper place." Mason warns the judge against prejudicing the jury against the defendant by his attitude towards the defendant's attorney. The judge says Mason has lost the respect of the Court, takes a recess.
EIGHTEEN.	Mason, Street, Keith and Drake are having lunch. Mason points out that Boles has committed "the damnedest, most clever perjury [he's] ever encountered." Mason points out that the thumbprint on Eagan's driver's license doesn't match that of the dead man. Drake notes that the body of Eagan was apparently identified by his widow in Mexico. But signatures on the license and car-rental contract are similar. Has Drake gotten Guthrie Balfour's driver's license application yet. [Bingo! Make the connection!] He's awaiting it. Mason notes that all the information he needs is in conversations where the defendant was not present, so they cannot be entered into testimony. Drake notes that the one they need, Guthrie, was in Chihuahua only long enough to phone Mason, and probably assumes nothing much can happen to Ted.
NINETEEN.	Mason asks Boles about their taxicab conversation. He prompts Boles; didn't he tell him "that Mr Guthrie Balfour had told you that he had done the shooting . . ." Boles acts incredulous. Boles denies ever being at the Sleepy Hollow Motel. He last saw Guthrie at the train station, and spoke to him once just after Guthrie had spoken to Mason. Mason says he may recall the witness. Florence Ingle is called. She states Ted's asking for twenty thousand dollars and the demand or a collector would see him. He said he'd use his gun to scare the collector. Mason asks her if she talked with Guthrie on the same day. Farris objects, as it is outside permissible testimony since such conversation was not brought up in any previous testimony. As Dorla comes forward, Drake hands Mason a certified photostatic copy of Guthrie Balfour's driver's license application (They can't get the license without getting Guthrie). Then Hamilton Burger makes a dramatic entrance, thinking that Mason is in a corner and he's finally got him. {We know he's wrong, again!.] Dorla testifies to Ted's asking for her to intercede with her husband to get the money. She says not right away but later, because she was to get off the train at Pasadena, but he asked her to accompany him. " 'And you did?' Mason asked." Objected to. Sustained. "Didn't you actually get off the train at Pasadena?" Objected to, overruled. She says she didn't. Didn't she go tot he Sleepy Hollow Motel. "Certainly not." Was she with her husband when he phoned from Chihuahua? "Certainly." Over repeated objections by Farris, Mason finally gets the answers he is looking for. Was she with her husband when he telephoned Banner Boles. "Yes, sir." Mason springs his bombshell. "Well then, perhaps, Mrs Balfour, you wouldn't mind turning to the jury and explaining to them how it could possibly be that you journeyed on the train to El Paso with a corpse, that you spent some time in Chihuahua with a corpse, that you were with a corpse when he telephoned Mr Banner Boles?" He continues; "The right thumbprint of your husband Guthrie Balfour . . .is an exact copy of the right thumbprint of the dead man . . ." The judge asks for the thumbprint evidence, sees the similarity. Mason now notes the similarity in signatures on the license application and the car rental contract. The judge takes a recess and calls counsel into his chambers.
TWENTY.	Hamilton Burger rages about Mason's withholding and concealing evidence. The judge wants to hear Mason's theory. Simply put, Banner Boles assumed the identity of Jackson Eagan. Guthrie Balfour was listening to the conversation between Dorla and Boles. As the machine had some distortion, Guthrie didn't know it was Boles. When he confronted him, Boles couldn't afford to be recognized. When the gun went off, Boles slumped to the floor and Guthrie panicked, rushed out. He realized no one knew he had gotten off the train. He called Florence Ingle, asked her to return the plane he'd fly to Phoenix to get back on the train. But Dorla overheard him, picked up Ted's gun which Guthrie had left by the telephone and asked Guthrie innocently "Why, dear, what's this?" Then she shot him in the head. She and Boles got together, banged up the body, and made it look as a hit-and-run by Ted. If that didn't work, they'd use Florence Ingle to make appear as if Guthrie was the murder and he had resorted to flight. Boles sent the anonymous tip to the police so they could find the gun. Boles could call Mason as Guthrie, because Mason didn't know Guthrie's voice. He never called Ingle, because she would have recognized it was not Guthrie. Burger, never satisfied with any Mason explanation, challenges him, but the judge sides with Mason's explanation of all the events.
TWENTY-ONE.	Perry Mason, Della Street, Marilyn Keith, Paul Drake and Ted Balfour gather in the witness room to celebrate. Mason warns Balfour that the press is going to interview him. The bailiff calls Mason to the phone, and Drake and Street follow. It is Addison Balfour, who thanks Mason and ups his fee fifty percent, and rehires Marilyn Keith, to whom he will also make a large cash settlement. He asks all of them to get out to the house and forgive him. Mason goes to get Ted Balfour and Marilyn Keith. Della was right about her (see chapter five). Mason opens the door of the witness rooms, then steps back, suggesting they wait a minute or two. "I think the two people in there are discussing something that's damned important -- to them."

By the end of chapter fourteen the outline of the crime is in place, but Gardner holds an important piece of information from us to the end of a chapter which he gives Mason at the beginning of the chapter. Then he provides a much more complex solution than is necessary. One could simply place Boles in the motel room instead of Eagan in Ingle's story, and everything fits without other complications. Of course, Boles does this in his explanation, but we still don't catch on that there is still one element, one person, that is out of place. By the beginning of chapter eighteen, we should see the light, and count available bodies. By the end of eighteen, Gardner is almost hitting the reader over the head with all the clues that are needed.

Della Street	[Mr and Mrs Grover Olney]	Carver Kinsey
Perry Mason	Donald Derby	Trial deputy Sims Ballantine
Mrs John (Joan) Kirby	[Niece Gertrude]	Judge Conway Cameron
[Gertie]	Norma Logan	Joseph Hesper
John Northrup Kirby	Ronson Kirby	George Franklin
Lois Wagner	Drake's operative (later, Bill)	Harvey Nelson
Motel proprietor	[Drake's switchboard operator]	Milton Hazen Rexford
Beauty Rest manager	[Kirby's cook]	Steve Logan
[Dr Phineas Lockridge Babb]	[Kirby's housekeeper]	Uniformed officer
Paul Drake	DA's receptionist	Spectators
Motley Dunkirk	Deputy	Newspaper reporters
Elvira Dunkirk	Hamilton Burger	Public administrator

Erle Stanley Gardner in his Foreword takes great notice of the ability of A W Freireich, M D, F A C P (Fellow of the American College of Physicians), to undermine seemingly plausible medical defenses which are, nevertheless wrong, with his extensive knowledge of poisons and bodily conditions, such as hypoglycemia, and what causes them. So, of course, this Perry Mason novel is dedicated to Dr "Abe" Freireich.

Keeping up on technology -- tape recorders is one Erle Stanley Gardner liked; he used various "dictating machines" to write his books, having a secretary then transcribe his thoughts -- here we learn about automatic garage door openers. Not the kind like now, done by hand-held remote control, but ones triggered by black light as the car passes. (Should you be interested in Gardner's lifestyle, go see his "cabin" where he did much of his writing. It is in the library of the University of Texas, Austin.

Mason has always been an outrageously fast, even daredevil, driver. Here he gets religion and, to Paul Drake's surprise and delight, drives within speed limits.

It has been many novels since Mason put his hands into the armholes of his vest. Here he finally jams them in his pants pockets instead.]

ONE.	Della Street tells Perry Mason that she has a lulu for him. Mrs John Kirby wants him to cross-examine her husband. Mason takes Mrs Kirby's phone call. She insists she loves her husband but wants him to realize a story he's told her won't hold up. Mason says he'll see him.
TWO.	John Kirby, salesman, president of the Kirby Oilwell Supply Company, is announced by Gertie. The previous night he picked up a "young, good-looking, well dressed" woman who was carrying a one-gallon can of gasoline. They went searching for her car, didn't find it. He, who carries large sums of money at all times, went to a motel, was rejected by the proprietor, found another, the Beauty Rest,r and registered with Lois Wagner as husband and wife as Mr and Mrs John Wagner. He got home about one o'clock, told his wife about it the next day. They want back to the motel, and Lois was gone. Mason asks about the gasoline can. He's not sure if it is in his car. Mason says he'll find the girl through her auto registration. Kirby hurriedly exits. Mason tells Della that Kirby now realizes his story won't hold up and is going to get a gasoline can. Della remembers a story in the newspapers about neighbors of Dr P Lockridge Babb, a.k.a. Phineas L Babb, hearing a woman screaming. Dr Babb was knocked unconscious and a woman who looked much like Lois was seen leaving. The police found the doctor's appointment book and Della remembers one of the two evening appointments was a Kirby. Perry sends Della to Paul Drake, then has her try to reach either Kirby. She can't.
THREE.	Della relay's Paul's information. Dr Babb is semi-retired, lives within a few blocks of the Beauty Rest Motel. About eleven-thirty there was quite a commotion. The neighbors, Dunkirks, saw the girl who ran out, without a purse. Police found the names of Kirby and Logan in the appointment book.
FOUR.	Della and Perry go to the Dunkirks, are met by Motley, who is laconic, but Elvira recognizes the lawyer and invites them in. Mason comments on the marvelous view they have from their window. Elvira says that she and Motley watch the world over the top of Dr Babb's place. Motley is a photographer, and has a very fine pair of binoculars. They notice the Olney's (Mr and Mrs Grover) cat playing with a dead goldfish from the pool laid out by Don Derby, who brings rocks heavy with minerals back from every trip he takes. She fixes the time Motley went into the darkroom as eleven-fifteen, the event as eleven-thirty. The piano in the background switches from jazz to classical. Sixteen-year-old niece Gertrude is at the player piano. It is a true antique. Gertrude was playing it until after midnight. An embarrassed silence follows Mason's request to talk to her. Mrs Dunkirk continues. She saw this girl walking up the street, turn into Dr Babb's. She was wearing a grey plaid jacket over bluish-green ruffed blouse and gray skirt. She had dark brown hair, and was not carrying anything. After she went in she heard banging. She called to Motley, ran to the front door and then heard screaming, then glass shattering. She called the police, went back to the front door, saw the same woman run out the front. As she started down to the house the police arrived. Motley explains he was in the darkroom and when he came out he saw Donald Derby wrapped in a towel come out so he went back to his pictures. He explains how he was once a witness in "a little, two-bit automobile accident case" and the lawyer on the other side browbeat him and the judge didn't do anything. So he wants to stay uninvolved. Then he mentions the other woman who was coming out of the back door. The police don't know about her since they didn't interview him. He only knows it was a woman, nothing more, except he believes she's the one who knocked Dr Babb out. Mason advises Motley that it is his duty to report this to the police, as Della takes down the conversations verbatim. They decide to interview the handy man. Don welcomes them. He was taking a shower after making his bed. He heard a woman screaming, ran out in a towel, saw the back door swinging shut. Mason suggests the woman could have been in the open door screaming, then gone back in, and Don says that could be. He went to the back door, banged on it. All was quiet. He went to the side, tapped on a window, then the police found him. Another officer went in the open front door. Yes, he's heard the description of the woman who was running out of the house. It might be a Logan woman, who came by in the morning, driving a nice, shiny Ford. It had a temporary pasteboard license number in the rear window, and he helped her put on the regular plates. AAl 279. Don doesn't know why she drove her car right down the driveway. Mason asks about the niece. "She's a funny kid." Often sits at the goldfish pond, seems to have nothing to do. She's probably fifteen, not sixteen. Perry and Della leave, phone Drake with the license number, learn that Dr Babb has died. Ten minutes later they learn the license belongs to Norma Logan.
FIVE.	Perry and Della go to the Mananas Apartments and apartment 280, are met by Norma Logan who doesn't admit to knowing anyone named Kirby or a Dr Babb. When Mason says Dr Babb is dead, she breaks down, admits to knowing a John Kirby who was nice enough to pick her up when she was carrying a can of gasoline and take her to a motel. Mason continues; Dr Babb is dead and she was seen running out of his house, she admits that Kirby told her to back him on his story, a half hour earlier. She now admits she's Ronnie's half-sister, namely Ronson Kirby. Dr Babb was running a baby mill, running two little private hospitals, one for rich society women, the other for unfortunate women who went to be delivered of unwanted children. Babb put the foster parents name on the birth certificate, charged them $10,000 and gave the mother $1000 and an assurance the child would be with a good family. How was she involved? Her father was an "adventurer, impractical, but dashing and magnetic." He remarried and within a year was wiped out, dying in the jungles of South America. She was seventeen with a pregnant stepmother. Babb took the baby. She looked for it and the birth records for the day had only on, a son to John and Joan Kirby. This is her Ronnie. She went to Dr Babb, who promised he'd call if there were ever a problem. Then the past Friday, he called. Someone was trying to blackmail him and it had to do with the Kirby's. She contacted Kirby, and they went to see Dr Babb, only he parked around a corner and she went in. She heard a scream, found Dr Babb on the floor and an early-thirties mature woman with upturned nose and dark hair and eyebrows was over him. The woman ran to the back while she stole Dr Babb's confidential records, ran to Kirby's car, and they drove away just as the police were arriving. She and Mason argue. He demands the book. She confides with Della in private. Mason tells Norma to get a lawyer. He and Della leave. (She has the book, or so we are led to believe.) He says he'll have Drake get an operative to watch the Kirby's.
SIX.	Paul Drake is eight and a half minutes late for his seven-forty-five appointment with Perry Mason. He's put two and two together. The police have traced the woman to the Beauty Rest Motel and taken fingerprints which matched those found in Dr Babb's office, tho not on the glass beaker which was the weapon. The license number registered at the hotel was right for the letters and first digit (JYJ 1), leaving ninety-nine possibilities, which narrows down since they know the make of the car. Since the police are looking for a Kirby, and Mason has a Drake operative watching the Kirby residence . . . (2+2!) The operative phones in; Kirby has returned. Drake's switchboard operator gets Kirby on the line, and Mason learns that he's "been out on a short business trip" with his wife and son. Mason tells him to stay put until he arrives. He then phones Della to be ready to be picked up. While driving to Kirby's, Mason expresses his gratitude (it is as close to "love" as he'll come) for Della's loyalty and dependability. The Kirby's are not home, so they investigate the garage, which has doors that open when tripped by an approaching car, and which later close automatically. They find a one-gallon gasoline can in an Oldsmobile with a license plate that matches what the police know. The three doors swing up and Mrs Kirby drives in. She is startled to find Mason, then Street, in her garage, wonders why they didn't go to John in the house. So she looks for him, and he's not there. Mason thinks the police may already have him, and Joan says he'll probably try to explain things. She cannot understand Mason's interest. "Murder."
SEVEN.	Mason goes to the district attorney's office. The receptionist says he's in a conference. Mason bypasses the receptionist and is met by a deputy who hesitates long enough for Mason to get to Hamilton Burger's office and bang on the door. The district attorney says he hasn't finished questioning Kirby. Mason says he has. Kirby is hesitant, then says he knows his way around. Mason escorts Kirby to his car, stating "I'm not accustomed to having my word doubted, Mr Mason." Mason confronts Kirby with his illegal child and Dr Babb, and he denies all, including any knowledge of a Norma Logan. He asserts that the district attorney was very considerate. He's given them permission to take his car for fingerprints and the gasoline can. Mason tells him they'll search the glove compartment . . . Now Kirby wants Mason to hurry up, get home quicker. He's worried that some of his business secrets might be in the glove compartment. Mason shows him the sales slip for the gasoline can, and Kirby is relieved, but indignant. He insists that he didn't visit Dr Babb.
EIGHT.	Mrs Kirby is awaiting the trio's return. His car has been towed away. Mason calls Kirby down, explains how the girl was seen running from Babb's and her fingerprints are there, at the motel and in his car, so he's an accessory to murder. Further, Ronson is a black-market baby, whose half-sister is Norma Logan. Burger was cordial because he had John in a trap, and would love the publicity of convicting a wealthy man of murder. John still protest he and the girl are in the clear. Mason regards "Kirby with angry eyes, feet spread apart, hands jammed in his trouser pockets." He tells Kirby he did the worst possible thing, lie to his lawyer. Kirby says he's a prominent man in the city and he has influential friends and can political wires. This is why, says Mason, they played cat-and-mouse with him, but they'll pick him up after they hear Norma Logan's story. He's pulled the rug out from under her, so they can convict her of murder and him of being an accessory. Mrs Kirby chimes in; she wants Mason to stay on and protect sensitive, sweet Ronnie. Mason points out that Kirby's name was on Babb's register, but Kirby again asserts he had no appointment. He talked with Norma, but was afraid to talk with Dr Babb because of blackmail. Kirby keeps weaseling even after Mason tells him to tell the police nothing. Mason and Street leave, and the lawyer notes to the secretary that Mrs Kirby mentioned the mother-of-pearl buttons on the jacket of the girl. Since Kirby didn't mention them, he hasn't told his wife, so how did she know? They'll talk to her after John is arrested so he cannot coach her.
NINE.	The police have picked up John, so Mrs Kirby phones Mason, who tells her to come up to the office immediately. When she arrives Mason brings up the mother-of-pearl bit which forces Joan to tell her story. A letter came to John from Dr Babb. She steamed it open, found that the doctor was asking John to come to his office to discuss ramifications on the matter which he thought had been concluded years before. She burned the letter, and made the appointment herself, at a time she knew her husband would be at the sales meeting. She parked a block away. She was early and the doctor told her to wait until he finished with someone else. She found the rest room with doors into the inner and outer offices. She watched things, and the outer door opened and Logan came in. There was a commotion in the inner office and she saw a man there, and Dr Babb lying on the floor. The man fled out the back door. She followed, ran around the side of the house to her car. She's a light sleeper, so she and John have separate rooms, but she spoke shortly with him when he came in. She was unable to fall asleep. John went out about three for an hour and a half. The next morning John told his story and she suggested they go out and give her some money. She know all along the Kirby the police were talking about was her. She suggested to John he see Mason so if blackmail came up later he'd be protected. She's scared for Ronnie.
TEN.	Mason makes Street admit she has Dr Babb's book of adoptees and adoptors. Della gets the book. Perry asks her to have Paul look up the whole Logan family tree. Della suggests he consult another lawyer who could advise him to not turn it over to the police. That is when Gertie informs them that Carver Kinsey wants to see Mason. Mason tells Della that Kinsey is "one lawyer who is really shifty." Kinsey banters, gets Della to put her notebook away, then brings up Dr Babb's notebook. He thinks it "is a dream come true." Won't even involve blackmail, but will raise him to being a lawyer for bigshots. He intends to get money. He wants the notebook, but will share it with Mason. Mason will pass this on to his client. Kinsey counters that Mrs Kirby can write a $25,000 check from an account that is always keep at four times that. Mason says he'll advise his client against the deal. Kinsey thinks he can get immunity from the district attorney for Norma Logan who will then crucify Perry Mason.
ELEVEN.	John Kirby has wilted under incarceration. He thinks Mason should pay off Kinsey, but Mason says no. Mason knows they don't yet have enough evidence to convict, so he'll "push for an immediate preliminary hearing."
TWELVE.	Trial deputy Sims Ballantine tells the Court, including Judge Conway Cameron, that he doesn't "know what the evidence in this case will show." He wants a continuance, but Mason refuses. The judge says he won't allow a fishing expedition, that maybe the case should go to the grand jury later. Joseph Hesper was the first officer on the scene. He went in the front while his partner, George Franklin, went around the back. George found Denby tapping on a side window, then he admitted George at the back door (thus obliterating any useful fingerprints). Mrs Dunkirk came to the front door, and she described the young woman who ran out. The ambulance came in fifteen minutes, and the search for the girl went on another ten. Hesper explains the time element of Denby's coming to the window, in a towel, dripping water. He admits someone other than the runaway woman could have been in the house. Harvey Nelson, fingerprint expert, testifies to finding fingerprints of Dr Babb, handyman Denby, an unidentified person, and some found also in the motel and Kirby's car. Nelson also tried to get information from Dr Babb and, after many attempts to get an answer, he gave the name of John Kirby. Milton Hazen Rexford, neighbor of Dr Babb, saw a car license JYJ 112 in front of his house, and John Kirby in it. He saw Kirby the next day in a lineup. He saw the girl go from Kirby's car to Dr Babb's.. He saw Kirby drive away quickly after the girl came back to the car. Mason grills him about lighting conditions and such, and largely discredits the witness's testimony. Don Derby is next. He's fairly sure no one could have come out of the back door while he went to the side window.
THIRTEEN.	Mason tells Della that the case went so-so, but he can counter this with Motley Dunkirk's testimony, though this will involve Joan Kirby. He knows Kinsey hasn't gone to the D A, because Sims Ballantine is conducting the prosecution. Norma will recognize Joan Kirby as the woman in Babb's when her face appears in newspapers. Norma has an uncle, Steve Logan, a big used-car dealer. She purchased her shiny car from him. Drake arrives with the news that Steve Logan was at Dr Babb's the afternoon of the murder. He was there to get specification on the goldfish pool. The Grover Olneys saw him. Little waterfalls feed it. Apparently they were off, since the sound interferes with Dr Babb's sleep. Drake notes that Gertrude also watches the goldfish. She's in some sort of scrape and is staying three months with the Dunkirks. The neighbors think she, sixteen, unmarried, is going to have a baby. Kinsey returns to tell Mason he has a lead-pipe cinch, if he'll play along. Of course, he won't. Perry tells Della that Kinsey will try to make a trade with Burger so he can keep the book, but none of them have taken into consideration "The technical rules of evidence.
FOURTEEN.	Della wakes Perry with the news that she's been served a subpoena duces tecum calling for her to produce "a cardboard-backed notebook which was the property of Dr P L Babb" at ten o'clock in Judge Cameron's courtroom. A knock at Mason's door, and a uniformed officer gives him a subpoena duces tecum. Drake informs Mason that Norma Logan's attorney is Carver Kinsey and he's sold Burger a load of goods.
FIFTEEN.	Spectators and newspaper reporters now jam Judge Cameron's courtroom. Hamilton Burger is no trying the case, and he calls Della Street as a hostile witness. She answers preliminary questions, but as soon as Burger asks about her conversation with Norma Logan Mason objects. Burger argues that he'll prove the defendant is an accessory, and Mason's fingerprints on a gasoline prove he planted evidence. Mason notes that since Burger's fingerprints are on the can, and "that is the sole criterion of guilt," he can prefer charges against Burger. Mason's objection is upheld in that it calls for a conclusion of the witness. Further, what has the notebook to do with the case? Mason wins every time Burger rephrases his questions. Burger gives up, calls Norma Logan. Mason asks Joan Kirby to sit next her husband. Shortly into Burger's examination of Logan, she recognizes Joan Kirby, shouts out "That's the woman!" Commotion. Mason points out that Logan has just exonerated John Kirby of the murder, for he was in his car and Joan was in the office. Kinsey whispers to Burger, who asks about the book she took from Dr Babb's office, but Mason points out that this book could have nothing to do with his client. Burger slanders Mason, is admonished by Judge Cameron, and recalls Harvey Nelson. Nelson now testifies that maybe it was Joan, not John, that he heard the dying Dr Babb name as his assailant. Nelson has a tape recording of the declaration. Mason gets him to admit that he was given "instructions not to mention it unless" he was asked, by Mr Ballantine. The tape recorder is sent for. Joan admits being at Dr Babb's to Mason and John.
SIXTEEN.	The tape is played and the judge thinks he hears John, not Joan, but Burger persists, yet doesn't want the tape admitted as evidence. Mason demands it, and the judge agrees. Mason asks to recall a witness, handy man Don Derby. The back door to Dr Babb's had a device to shut it automatically and spring lock it. So, too, didn't his door have the same device. Yes. Then how, wrapped in a towel only, thus without key, how did he get back in his house? Mason suggests the police search Dr Babb's house for shoes and clothes that will fit Derby. He notes that he's given the notebook to the public administrator, so has stolen nothing, instead he has recovered stolen property. The judge instructs Burger to see that things are competently investigated.
SEVENTEEN.	Mason and Street are finally introduced to Ronnie by Mrs Kirby. Mason explains all. The man should have been seen leaving Dr Babb's, but wasn't seen by either Dunkirk. So he must have stayed on in the house. He had begun to figure out what Dr Babb was up to. Perhaps Derby and Steve Logan were working together, but Derby was key. He slugged Dr Babb when the doctor discovered him in the house after Steve Logan left by the back door. He hit him too hard. He couldn't find the notebook. He detoured into the doctor's bedroom, disrobed, went out the back and plunged into the pool, so was wet. The key clue was the fact that the neighbor's cat was playing with a dead goldfish. The cat had never before been able to catch a goldfish. When Derby plunged in, there was an overflow which sent a goldfish out of the pool. Mason thinks the secrets in the book are safe.

Again, this is an overly complicated solution, with far more red herrings than are necessary. Motley Dunkirk could have as well been "made" the murder by Gardner, for he could have been protecting Gertrude.

Jerry Conway	Sgt Holcomb	Hamilton Burger
Gifford Farrell	Radio car officer	Lt Tragg
Rosalind	Deputy coroner	Uniformed officer
Eva Kane	Police photographer	Alexander Redfield
Gashouse Baker	Two plain-clothes men	Police shorthand reporter
Unidentified phone voice	Gladedell Motel manager	Headquarters reporters
Redfern desk clerk, Robert Makon [Bob] King	Evangeline Farrell (Rosalind)	Officers at motel with mine sweepers
[Gerald Boswell]	Holly Arms switchboard operator	Judge Clinton DeWitt
Redfern elevator operator (Myrtle Lamar)	. . . Rose Mistletoe Calvert	Ladies & gentlemen of the jury
Mildred	Drake's operative at Lane Vista	Marvin Elliott
Perry Mason	Simon & Wells detective	Dr K C Malone
Paul Drake	Norton Barclay Calvert	Dr Reeves Garfield
Murdered woman . . .	Ruth Culver	Redfern chambermaid
Della Street	Fred Inskip	Redfern waiter
Homicide officer	Hamilton Burger's secretary	Court officers

In what must be Erle Stanley Gardner's shortest Forewords, he dedicates this Perry Mason novel to Merton Melrose Minter, M D, who, after rising to the top of his profession, "turned his razor-keen mind to a 'spare-time' study of the problems of evidence, of law enforcement and the part the citizen could and should play in co-operating with the various law-enforcement agencies."

To keep interest in his mystery plots high, Erle Stanley Gardner changes significantly his openings, and his chapter lengths. In the majority of his Perry Mason novels the average chapter length is about one-tenth the length of the book (Morrow edition). In many of his mysteries, Perry Mason is the first person encountered. Next, of course, is secretary Della Street, readying the office for Mason's arrival. Then, as here, we start with the problem up front. This time Mason is held off until the end of the first chapter, tho in some mysteries it can go two, three, even four chapters before the best sleuth among lawyers appears.

An interesting side note; an elevator operator is reading a twenty-five cent novel, No Smog Tomorrow. This reveals that smog was part of the Los Angeles scene back in the mid-fifties. And how about 25¢ for a novel?

Mason now drinks Scotch, with soda.

1.	Jerry Conway reads a half-page ad that challenges proxy holders in California & Texas Global Development & Exploration Company to send him, Gifford Farrell, their proxies. Conway had reinvested rather than declare a big dividend, and Farrell was out to take away his company. A phone call comes to him from a woman identifying herself as "Rosalind." She has information about Farrell and the proxies he's gathered. She's afraid of getting killed. The next day Conway's secretary, Eva Kane, gives him another phone call from Rosalind. She's afraid of what can be done to her by a one-man goon squad, Gashouse Baker. She calls again, this time with Eva Kane taking down the conversation. She gives him elaborate instructions on how to shake his tail and go to a phone in the Empire Drugstore for a at exactly six-fifteen for instructions on how to meet her. Eva is certain it is a trap, and he's certain he knows the voice, not by its town, but its cadence. He gets to the phone early, and at six-twelve gets a call from someone other than Rosalind. He goes to the Redfern Hotel, gets an envelope from the clerk acting as if he's Gerald Boswell, finds in it a key to room 729. He takes the elevator, whose operator barely recognizes him, and goes there, enters, then Mildred enters in bra and panties with a mudpack covering her face. She gets a gun, which he wrests from her, and leaves. Driving away, he discovers one bullet has been fired from the .38 caliber revolver. He calls Perry Mason's night number.
2.	Perry Mason answers Paul Drake's call. Conway has phoned Drake at his office, with what is probably a murder weapon in his possession. Mason has Drake ask if his services are worth a thousand dollar retainer. Drake reports back two thousand. Mason says he'll meet Conway at Drake's office. There Conway tells his story of a woman called Rosalind. Mason checks the gun, notes that it has recently been fired. He says the woman in the room was not embarrassed, but frightened. Mason and Drake drive to the Redfern Hotel. Drake plays at being Boswell to the clerk, then he and Mason go to 729. The elevator girl is reading No Smog Tomorrow, a twenty-five cent novel. In the room they find a dead woman, not in mudpack. Drake wants to report the murder from the room, but Mason cautions him that they don't know Conway is involved, and Conway is not Drake's client, but Mason's. In the lobby Mason phones Della Street, tells her to pick up Conway, grill him on who the girl was who phoned him, and get him out of circulation. He then calls homicide, and the answering officer passes him directly to Sgt Holcomb. Holcomb say's he's on his way, skeptical of Mason's tale of finding the body. While waiting, Mason informs desk clerk bob King that Drake is not Boswell and cross-examines him into confusion. An officer arrives and Mason chides him for asking questions rather than securing the murder room. When Holcomb arrives, the clerk states that Drake is Mason's client. Mason answers all questions put to Drake. Holcomb goes to the room, and Drake begins getting operatives on the case. A deputy coroner, police photographer and two plain-clothes men arrive. Holcomb returns, demands to know who Mason's client is, and the attorney says he'll produce him at nine in the morning.
3.	Mason returns to his office and tells Della that it is murder. She says Conway is at the Gladedell Motel, which has a friendly manager. She's learned that Conway is a very eligible bachelor. Farrell was promoted beyond his capacities by Conway until the boss learned that he was being stabbed in the back. The board backed Conway. Mason goes to the Gladedell. Conway cannot remember the possessor of the voice on the phone, nor identify the murdered woman, but he has the gun, serial C 48809, which Mason tells him to keep in hand. Mason points out that it was a trap getting him to the apartment. The woman walked towards him, virtually forcing him to take the gun from her. Conway feels certain that Rosalind was sincere. He thinks he shouldn't sit while they snipe at him, but he should double-cross them. Mason tells him to not fool around, but sit tight.
4.	Mason passes the gun number on to Drake, then goes to see Eva Kane. She's worried, was sure it was a trap. Then she gets it; Rosalind is Evangeline Farrell, separated wife of Gifford.
5.	Mason goes to the Holly Arms apartments, gets the switchboard operator to put through his call. Red-headed Evangeline is quite attractive in her "Chinese silk lounging pajamas, embroidered with silken dragons." She smokes cigarettes in a "long, carved, ivory cigarette holder." She's trying to negotiate a property settlement with Gifford. Mason traps her into admitting she is Rosalind. She has a next egg of stock in Texas Global, and thinks it will be worthless if Gifford gets the company. So she wanted to help Conway. But she didn't get through to him at six-fifteen; another man eventually answered and said Conway had left. She has a photo of Gifford's latest girl friend, Rose Calvert, in a bikini that is hardly noticeable. Mason is rather sure she's the murdered girl. Evangeline offers a drink. Mason takes Scotch after she twists his arm, playfully. She has perfect carbons of the proxy list, and offers them to Mason. Mason tries the Gladedell Motel, but Conway doesn't answer. Mason is in a hurry to use his information, and Evangeline gives up trying to vamp him.
6.	Mason phones Drake that he's going out to see Rose Calvert, wants an operative to precede him and see if anyone else is watching the place. Mason gets a couple of cups of coffee, calls Conway, who says he ran out for shaving stuff. Mason says he has the proxy list. He goes on to the Lane Vista Apartments, where Drake's man informs him that another detective from Simons & Wells has been waiting for Rose. A letter to Rose identifies Norton B Calvert, possibly Rose's husband, way out in Elsinore. Mason decides to see him, even though it is rather late. He wakes Norton, who says he was sort of hoping his wife would change her mind, but seems as if she really wants a divorce. He inherited sixty thousand, wanted to buy a business, is working a service station next the place he wants to buy. This doesn't fit Rose's lifestyle. She wants to use her good looks. Mason describes the dead woman's clothes, and Norton says the tight-fitting blue sweater is a Christmas present from him. Rose has sent him a letter saying she wants to go to Reno, which he shows Mason. He is defeated, goes to his bedroom and cries, as Mason leaves. The attorney calls his detective, and asks him to get check-outs from the seventh floor between six and eight.
7.	Mason returns to his office where Della is dozing. She has coffee and donuts. Mason washes his face, reports to Drake and Street on Norton Calvert. Mason expects the body to be identified within a half hour. Drake gets a call indicating the gun was sold to Texas Global for the protection of the cashier. Mason explains how Conway was misled by an early phone call before Rosalind could get her call to him. Paul says a woman named Ruth Culver checked out from 728, across the hall from the murder room. Operative Fred Inskip is in the room. Mason makes Della go home, and follows her to make sure she's save.
8.	At the Gladedell Conway shows Mason an envelope he found in his car. It has names of those who sent in proxies, not enough to defeat him. Mason produces the carbons. The indicate Conway would lose the company. On the way to the district attorney's, Mason warns Conway that he had better not have done any gun switching.
9.	Promptly at nine Mason and enter the D A 's office. Lt Tragg, a uniformed officer and ballistics expert Alexander Redfield were with Hamilton Burger, as was a tape recorder. A microphone is relaying the room to a police shorthand reporter. Conway relates his story in full detail, and Mason interrupts to take note of important facts of which Conway may not know the import. Once Conway says he realized the gun he'd taken from the woman had been fired once, he called Mason. Here Mason ends Conway's story. Burger tries to involve Mason, but the lawyer points out he didn't even know there was a murder. Conway gives them a gun. After much haggling, Redfield points out that the gun Conway handed over was a Smith & Wesson, while the murder weapon was a Colt revolver. Of course Burger now accuses Mason of switching guns. Farrell is brought in, and he challenges Mason and Conway until Mason asks about his involvement with Rose Calvert of whom he made photos in a bikini. Mason takes Conway out, leaving Farrell to be questioned by Burger, Holcomb and company. They meet newspaper reporters.
10.	Conway doesn't think he did bad, but Mason reminds him that the girl wanted him to take the gun. As they near Mason's parked car, Mason notices police searching the motel grounds with mine detectors. One holds up a revolver by a pencil in the barrel. Mason. After Mason points out that whoever is framing him must have followed him from the drug store, Conway asserts Farrell must have planted the gun.
11.	Mason goes back to the Redfern, tries to conceal himself from the elevator girl with a newspaper, but she recognizes him by the way he stands. She asks about Drake. Mason sends her back to the lobby, goes to Inskip. They search the room, eventually the bed, and find a bullet in the mattress. Mason makes Inskip keep it. Inskip says he will remember telling Mason to report the bullet.
12.	Judge Clinton DeWitt asks Hamilton Burger if he wishes to make an opening statement, and Burger responds, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I am going to make one of the briefest opening statements I have ever made." He goes on to argue that he will convict Gerald Conway of first-degree murder. He identifies the murder weapon as having serial 7408181. Mason, unexpectedly, also decides to give an opening statement, and says that perjury and circumstantial evidence, to which he can offer a different solution, will demand a verdict of not guilty. Sgt Holcomb testifies to his conversation with Mason and going to the hotel room. He found the body, left arm hanging down, right arm frozen above the face stiff of rigor mortis. Assistant Marvin Elliott examines Gifford Farrell, who testifies about the proxy fight and introduces the proxy list that Conway found in his car. Farrell admits it is a false list he had Rose Calvert prepare. Robert Makon King, desk clerk at the Redfern hotel, testifies that the murdered woman registered under the name of Gerald Boswell, to whom she was secretary. She paid in advance because she had no luggage. He delivered an envelope to the defendant. Mason gets his admission that he didn't at the time think it wasn't Paul Drake to whom he gave the envelope. Dr K C Malone testifies death occurred between six-fifteen and seven o'clock. This is based on contents of the stomach, and the fact that a waiter brought lunch up at 4:30, as well as rigor mortis. Mason pursues the question of time of death. Dr Reeves Garfield from the coroner's office concurs with Dr Malone on the time of death, but Mason gets him to admit there were factors which could lead to an earlier time of death, including a certain discoloration of the body. Room service sent a lunch up at four-thirty, indicating death around six-thirty. The lunch contents were found in the stomach, plus peas. The waiter apparently forgot about the peas. A recess is called. Mason thinks he's got the prosecution on the run, but Conway thinks Mason did not rigorously cross-examine Farrell.
13.	Street, Mason and Drake discuss the case. Mason knows he is missing a woman. He is certain the body was moved. Drake says he's getting on fine with Myrtle Lamar, the Redfern Hotel elevator operator. She knows everything that goes on in the hotel. Mason all of a sudden realizes that he's taken Conway's story that it is a frame-up. He tells Drake tohave Myrtle in court the next day, and let Inskip go to the police with his story. He now thinks he has an idea, one predicated on sound logic.
14.	Judge DeWitt calls the court to order. Dr Garfield is still on the stand. Mason asks him about the discoloration. Did the doctor ever know of a case where rigor mortis was in the right shoulder but not the left unless someone had broken the rigor? No, he doesn't. So here the rigor had been broken. Burger appears worried. Lt Tragg testifies as to the statement made by Conway. The uniformed officer testifies to the same statement. Mason joins Street, Drake and Lamar, then takes them to Farrell. When she leaves the room Myrtle is ushered into Evangeline's bedroom and asked to look at her shoes. Evangeline comes in and is more than upset, but confronted with Mason's attempt to call Lt Tragg, she tells her story. She knew Rose Calvert was Ruth Culver. She was in 728 typing the proxy list. She wanted to get the list to Conway, so fabricated the situation, including Gashouse Baker. She watched Rose, who would not recognize her. When Rose left the building, she tossed the key on the clerk's desk while the clerk was busy. So Evangeline became Boswell's secretary and rented the room across from Rose. When Rose returned, she didn't type, so perhaps the list Evangeline had was obsolete or phony, which led her to phone Conway as Rosalind and give him the old rigmarole. She called him from a place away from the hotel, so was away from the apartment. About three-thirty she heard what sounded like a banging on her door. She was terrified that she'd been found out. Instead, Gifford walked out of 728. She waited. Heard nothing. Went out, called 728, was told the tenant was not in. She went back, tapped on the door, went in, found Rose dead. The gun next her was the one the company had bought for the cashier and it was now hers except she'd left it behind when she moved out from Gifford. When she started to leave, she met the chambermaid. She told her she was waiting for a friend who had given her the key, but could wait no longer. When the maid had moved on, she returned to 729. She knew the maid would place her in the room, so she had to move the body to 72. She had a waiter bring up lunch, so she could make it appear as if the murder had happened later. While arranging the rooms, she found the carbons of the correct proxy list. She then got mud and did a mud pack for her face, knowing that it tightens the skin and would make her totally unrecognizable. Then she called Conway early and gave him the information that brought him to the room, where she forced the murder weapon on him. He grabbed the gun and ran. She washed her face, carried the body across the hall. Then she found the second gun, under the bed. She put it in a hatbox. The body had begun to stiffen, so she arranged it with the left arm dangling. She then calmly called the bellboy and checked out, explaining her father was critically ill in San Diego, which is why she was checking out so early. She knew calls had to go through the switchboard so, after Mason left her, she checked where he had called, found that it was the Gladedell Motel, asked if Jerry Conway was registered there, found he was, and planted the gun and put the phony list of proxies under his car seat. He could afford lawyers to get him off. She knew the evidence would point to her if she didn't do this. Drake serves her a subpoena.
15.	Mason lectures Drake on the importance of circumstantial evidence and how careful you have to be to not misinterpret it. He's not certain that Farrell killed Rose, for he wouldn't have left the second gun there. He tried to make the crime look like a suicide. Myrtle demands her lunch, and Mason makes Drake take her. And Evangeline didn't murder Rose, because she gave the wrong weapon to Conway. Drake sees "a darned good restaurant" and asks Myrtle how much lunch she wants. "Not too much. I'll have two dry Martinis to start, then a shrimp cocktail, and after that a filet mignon with potatoes au gratin, a little garlic toast, a few vegetables on the side such as asparagus or sweet corn, then some mince pie à la mode, and a big cup of black coffee. That will last me until evening," she says. Apparently the murder weapon was stolen from a gun store by a bunch of kids and this gun was not found when the kids were caught. He's now sure that the peas in Rose's stomach prove she was murdered earlier. Back at court, Elliott spars for time until Burger and Redfield arrive. Elliott calls Inskip who tells the story of Mason coming to the hotel and finding the bullet. Mason has so far had no cross-examination. Redfield testifies that the bullet given him by Inskip came from a Smith & Wesson C 48809. The fatal bullet was fired from Colt 740818. It is the Smith & Wesson that Conway took from the woman in the room. No cross. Robert King comes back. He is forced to admit that the woman who checked in could have been the murdered woman. Ruth Culver and Rose Calvert have the same initials. Burger is getting annoyed by Mason's tactics, starts objecting, says Mason planted the bullet. The judge sides with Mason, and suggests that a handwriting person compare the hotel register and the handwriting of the dead woman. Mason interjects, "and when he does that, Your Honor, the handwriting expert will have to testify that the Ruth Culver who signed the register and checked into 728 was the Rose Calvert whose body was found in 729." Burger, of course, has not checked the register. The judge admonishes Burger for not anticipating the defense. Burger calls Norton Barclay Calvert and gets Rose's husband to admit he learned of his wife's death from Mason about one in the morning. Mason asks about the letter he wrote to his wife. Didn't he when Mason arrived say he wouldn't do anything to make it easier for Rose to get a divorce. Mason confronts him with why he didn't go directly to the Elsinore police station to find if his wife had been murdered, but waited until later in the morning. Didn't he, once he knew of the letter in the mailbox, go to get the mailbox to get a letter that incriminated him. Myrtle Lamar enters with Paul Drake. Mason asks her to join him and the witness to stand up. As Burger objects to the procedure, Mason tells Calvert that he's not standing right. When Calvert disagrees, Myrtle laughs; she'd never forget his shoes. Mason now challenges Calvert with loving his wife so much he decided if he couldn'tthave her, no one would. He was willing to kill her, but lost his nerve trying to commit suicide. Judge DeWitt grants Mason's request for a recess. Calvert is confronted by Myrtle Lamar as he heads towards the door. He starts running, and officers have to gram and handcuff him.
16.	Mason, Street, Drake, Conway and Lamar sit in the courtroom after the commotion had subsided. The judge had instructed the jury to return a verdict of "Not Guilty" and Calvert was in custody. Mason says that from Mrs Farrell we knew lunch had been eaten at twelve-forty, so death was at two-forty, when Evangeline was phoning Jerry. He remembered telling Calvert about the letter, then noting that Calvert didn't go directly to thew police to determine if Rose were dead. Mason agrees to appear at the stockholder's meeting. Myrtle thinks they owe her more than dinner, like a fur coat. Conway says put it on his tab.

Perry Mason	Mason's parking attendant	Homicide receptionist
Della Street	Lt Tragg	Shorthand reporter
Stephanie Falkner	Maid at Casselman's	Uniformed officer
Momer Horatio Garvin, Sr	Another cab driver	Judge Hilton Decker
Homer Garvin, Jr	Lodestar desk clerk	Guy Hendrie
Eva Elliott	Garvin's salesmen	Radio officer
Marie Arden Barlow	Garvin's secretary	Police photographer
[Glenn Falkner]	Sgt Holcomb	Autopsy surgeon
Mr X (George Casselman)	Paul Drake's receptionist	Jurors
Lawton Barlow	Paul Drake	Alexander Redfield
1st cab driver	Jack Crowe	Paul Clinton
Gertie	Mrs Homer Garvin, Dawn Joyce	Lorraine Kettle
Lucille	3rd cab driver

Michael Anthony Luongo gains Erle Stanley Gardner's dedication in the Foreword to this novel for "his desire for truth and his refusal to be stampeded into jumping to conclusions.

Usually Paul Drake comes into action early on, but here it is chapter 9 of 21 before Mason calls on him.

Sometimes it is the little things that are interesting. Now everyone has his/her own phone, sometimes two what with the introduction of cellular phones, but it was rare in 1957. Here Garvin (Junior) and his wife Dawn Joyce have separate phones.

1.	Della Street asks Perry Mason, "What is the status of an unmarried woman who is quote, keeping company, unquote, win an unmarried male?" Her boss answers, "There is no legal status." Stephanie Falkner, in the outer office, is "keeping company" with Homer Garvin, not Senior, but Junior. She has inherited a gambling place in Las Vegas. Mason has her try to reach Senior, but cannot get past Eva Elliott, his secretary and replacement for Marie Arden. Miss Falkner is brought in. She owns forty per cent of the stock in a modest Las Vegas motel and casino. Her father was victim of a still unsolved murder. He was in to gambling, and sent her off to boarding school. The syndicate killed him. She was going with Junior. Senior bought fifteen percent of the stock to protect her. No a Mr X is trying to buy controlling interest. She wants Mason to reach Senior and wants Mason to go after her father's murderer. She says she'll be in touch at ten the next day, and walks out.
2.	Eva Elliott has set herself up "in a corner which framed her blond beauty against the dark mahogany paneling." She replaced Marie Arden, not married to Lawton Barlow. She is unfriendly to Mason, won't tell him how to reach Senior. Mason hails a cab, and is welcomed by Marie, who is due in nine weeks. She says she tried to visit Senior twice, was put off by Eva, who was put in the office when Junior switched from her to Stephanie. Eva must know where Senior is, but he often stays at the Double-O Motel.
3.	Back at the office Della checks on Mason's dealings with Senior; over a year. Della gets Gertie to call the Double-O. They eventually get a call back from Garvin Senior, who is surprised Eva wouldn't tell Mason where he was. Mason tells about Mr X. He tells Mason to represent him, and to get the name and address of Mr X and, if he's not in, give it to Lucille.
4.	Stephanie shows up at ten, says anything Garvin wants is okey with her. Mr X is George Casselman. Della Checks with Gertie, who reads the society columns faithfully as an incurable romanticist. She has found an article about Homer Junior, who was married in Chicago and has just returned.
5.	Mason drives to the Ambrose Apartments, 211, and gets to Casselman, who offers thirty thousand dollars for the fifteen percent Mason's client controls. Casselman gets a phone call. Mason leaves. Garvin Senior goes into the building. He returns and leaves as Stephanie drives up. She goes in, later comes out the back way and is picked up by Mason. She says he offered her thirty thousand for her forty percent. Mason returns to his office. Garvin arrives, saying he was offered thirty thousand for his fifteen percent, and he thinks Casselman murdered Glenn Falkner. Falkner was pushed out of a moving car , dead, driven by Casselman. The car had blood spots. Garvin shows Perry that he's a deputy sheriff and carries arms. Mason worries he might get rash. When Garvin learns that Marie tried to see him and was turned away, he says he's already fired Eva.
6.	Stephanie is delighted to see Homer with Mason. Homer tells her he's been in Las Vegas and he believes George Casselman killed her father. He thinks it is time to sell her property and Casselman is but an independent operator. She says she'd take anything over thirty thousand dollars. He agrees she should get eighty thousand, and they'd split anything above. After leaving, Mason queries Della as to why Stephanie should keep insisting on thirty thousand for forty percent, when thirty was offered for fifteen. Mason feels that Casselman was prepared to pay eighty and thirty until he got the phone call while Mason was there.
7.	Mason nods to his parking attendant as he pulls into his regular parking stall. Della meets him; Lt Tragg is looking for him. George Casselman has become a corpse. A maid found him about eight in the morning. They catch a cab to the Lodestar Apartments, nod at the desk clerk and go straight to Stephanie. Mason finds a snub-nosed revolver under her pillow. It has one empty chamber. It was given her by Homer, and is very similar to the one Homer had in his shoulder holster. He left it the previous night, she says. The continue with their cab to Garvin's office. It is locked. They go to Garvin Junior's used car lot. He walks past a lot full of salesmen and goes straight to Garvin Junior. There's friction between Junior and Senior, because of the faster pace of the current generation. He gives them Elliott's address and they head off to the Monadnock Apartments. Eva is not happy to see them, but Mason disarms her with a bit of charm. He came in at about eight forty-five and they had their to-do at nine. She now plans to further her stage career. Mason offers to take her in her cab. The cab driver drops Mason off at his office with Miss Street, sends the cab on with Eva to Hollywood. Lt Tragg greets the inseparable duo with the news of Casselman's death by .38 caliber revolver the previous night. As Tragg probes for information, he reminds Della how Mason fends off the questions he asks by digressing from the subject. He tells Mason that he should have gotten out of the cab a block away from his office and walked, which he would have done if it weren't for the cute blonde, for now he has the cab number and can trace his movements. Who was the blonde? Mason tells him. Tragg posits that the attorney might have picked up some young woman who might have killed Casselman and then called her attorney for help with self defense? Would the attorney's obligation not to betray a client control all other rules of ethics, asks Mason, then answers with "no." Tragg tells Mason he's given him a chance to come clean. He also notes that Homer Garvin, as a special deputy sheriff, has the right to carry a gun. Does Mason know where that gun might be. "What gun?" With Tragg gone, Mason contacts Marie Barlow and asks her to have Garvin call him if he calls her. He tells her that Eva has been fired, and she says she'll go back to the office until Garvin can get a new secretary. Almost as soon as he hangs up, Garvin calls. He thinks Stephanie may have fired the gun that killed Casselman, and tells Mason to protect her, wherever the chips may fall, while he goes out and becomes a red herring. Mason warns him that's dangerous, but Garvin says he realizes he loves the girl. Mason lets him know that Eva has left for good, and Marie is on the job. Mason tells Della he has something important to do and he has two things to be thankful for. First, he knows the police will trace his taxi route and second, Senior's wife insisted their first child be named Junior.
8.	Mason drives to Garvin Junior's used car lot and is immediately accosted by a salesman who follows him into Garvin's outer office where Mason also ignores the secretary. He demands Garvin to produce his gun, then gets its balance, notes it is identical to his father's weapon, and pulls the trigger. "The bullet plowed a furrow across the polished mahogany of Garvin's desk, glanced off the desk and imbedded itself in the wall." When the secretary and a salesman barge in, Mason merely claims he didn't know it was loaded. Garvin says he keeps "it loaded. There's very little percentage in clicking an empty gun at a band who it is trying to hold you up." Now he tells Garvin to put the gun in his pocket and come with him. Garvin calls for "that x-60 job" to be brought for their use, and for Mason's car to be taken out and checked. Mason roars off to the Lodestar Apartments. There he tells Garvin to give Stephanie his gun for her protection. Junior and Stephanie shake hands as friends. In the apartment lobby, Mason and Garvin hide behind magazines as Lt Tragg, Sgt Holcomb and the (second) taxi driver enter, confer with the desk clerk, and get into the elevator.
9.	Marie calls Mason at his office from Gavin's office and says Tragg and Holcomb want to search and they have a warrant. Mason says, "Invite them to make themselves at home." He goes to Drake's office, where the receptionist says the detective is in. When Mason says the job is George Casselman, Drake says he was murdered the previous night. Drake says Casselman was a penny ante racketeer, not a gambler. On the way back to his office he meets Stephanie Falkner, who says the police came up after he left and got the gun. She told the police she got it from Homer, without specifying Senior or Junior. Mason says that next time they question her, tell them she won't say anything unless her attorney is with her. She says Senior came back and stayed until around midnight. Mason suggests to Della he doesn't think Stephanie's dress is photogenic, how long would it take to shop for a better one. He suggests they be conspicuous, and shop until the stores close. She tells Mason that the other gun is well-hidden.
10.	Marie reports to Mason that the police searched and left, unhappy. The office is a mess with duplicate files, incorrectly filed documents and such, including overpaid bills. Drake comes in, says Mason is going to get some unpleasant publicity from Jack Crowe who writes a daily column entitled "Crowe's Caws." The story about Mason's mishandling of the gun at Garvin's will be in the paper.
11.	"Crowe's Caws" tells the story of Mason's gunsmanship, ending with a wounded desk, a corpus deskus. Della tells Perry that Junior is "tickled to death with the publicity." Stephanie doesn't answer at her apartment. Drake reports that George Casselman had a criminal record, and was killed between seven and eleven-thirty Tuesday night by a .38 caliber bullet with the gun held against his chest. Drake receives a call which lets him know that the gun found at Stephanie's fired the fatal bullet which means the gun Mason fired at Juniors is the murder weapon. It seems that the police now suspect Mrs Homer Garvin (Junior) of the murder, since Casselman was a blackmailer and she knew him in Las Vegas. When Drake leaves, Mason confides that Senior must have a key to Junior's office and he switched guns, but that still doesn't identify the murderer. He notes that the bullet he fired at Junior's proves he had the fatal gun in his possession. The D A might even try to prove Mason fired the fatal bullet. Della is tired, feels like a wet dish rag, so Mason sends her home.
12.	Senior phones from Las Vegas. He's happy with the developments. "The more trails they have to follow the more confused they'll get" is his take on the problems of the police. Della returns; she got some headache medicine. She went out to Junior's and is considering a car. She tried to phone Mason to get his opinion, but she couldn't get a connection. Drake phones in that the police just a few minutes ago decided to go to Garvin's and dig out the bullet, and it was gone. Della is demure. Sgt Holcomb arrives without knocking, wants to know where Mason got the murder weapon. Mason tells him. Holcomb suggests that Mason switched guns. Either Mason switched guns and is guilty, or didn't, and still is guilty, is Holcomb's position. Mason tells Holcomb of a mysterious visitor whose imminent arrival caused Casselman to kick him out of the apartment. Mason assures Holcomb that he didn't switch guns.
13.	Junior arrives. He's angry that Mason has involved his wife, Dawn Joyce. The police have a notebook in Casselman's with her phone number, and she has his on a pad next her phone. On Tuesday night he was interviewing a car dealer about taking twenty used cars and Dawn was at home, though he must have had the wrong number of her phone because twice she didn't answer when he tried to call her. The car dealer won't know he dialed the wrong number, only that she didn't answer. Mason explains the gun mixup, and Junior changes his attitude, tries to sell the attorney the x-60. He admits that the janitor, Dawn, his secretary, himself and his dad have keys to his office.
14.	Marie Barlow calls Mason with a tale of checks being sent a non-existent Acme Electric company. Further, Eva did not take the 2% discount for early payment. Then a call from Lucille at the Double-O. Garvin has not phoned her at the appointed time, so he's probably been picked up by the police.
15.	About to order dinner, Mason first calls Drake, and learns that Garvin is at police headquarters. He catches a cab and a homicide receptionist sends him to Burger's office where the DA, Tragg, a shorthand reporter, a uniformed officer and Homer are waiting. Mason demands to speak to his client before any questions are answered. They are sent to an office but Mason takes Garvin into a closet to avoid bugs. Garvin admits he's in love with Stephanie and maybe his son married the right girl. Casselman was busy when he went to visit. He wasn't to his office, had it out with Eva. Then he went to Stephanie and gave her his gun. He then got his other gun and went back to Casselman's, found him dead. There was a woman's shoe print in blood. He went to Stephanie, saw a recently-washed show identical to the one in the blood. He went back to Casselman's, stepped over her print and did everything to remove evidence of Stephanie. He did not switch guns. Back with Burger the two are shown a black and white photograph of the shoe print which matches Garvin's shoes. A color photograph shows a woman's shoe under the man's shoe. There is a thumb print of Garvin's on the back door knob. Mason tells Burger that since either of these situations would involve Garvin in crime, he won't answer. Mason says also he is responsible for Falkner having Junior's gun. Tragg sees that there is something in the case which doesn't fit together. Garvin is held, Mason release, and he goes to Della for dinner.
16.	Paul reports that Dawn Joyce worked on salary as a shill, part time as a show girl in a chorus, and part time as scenery. Casselman was a blackmailer. He dealt in cash, didn't use a bank, never made an income tax return. The Acme Electric company had mail delivered to a man in a rented room.
17.	Hamilton Burger opens with a brief and factual statement leading to his expectation of convicting Stephanie Falkner of first-degree murder. Then he will consider Garvin Senior and Mason as accessories. Judge Hilton Decker offers Mason the opportunity for an opening statement but Mason will wait. Guy Hendrie, Burger's assistant, calls a radio officer and a police photographer, then the autopsy surgeon. Holcomb is recalled, identifies the gun as one he found in Falkner's apartment at eleven-forty-five. Mason wakes the jurors up by deciding to cross-examine at this point, and asks about the position of the gun and such. Alexander Redfield states that the fatal bullet was fired from the gun Holcomb got from Falkner. Paul Clinton states he found evidence of blood on a shoe of Falkner's, plus evidence of said shoe on a blood-stained towel in Casselman's room. When Burger tries to get Clinton to identify the heel print of the show as appearing in the color photo, Mason objects that it is for the jury to decide, and the judge agrees. Clinton then identifies Garvin Senior's shoe as having a defect identical to what is shown in the photograph, and it revealed traces of blood. He identifies a thumb print from the back door, but Mason gets him to admit he cannot know when it was made. Mason argues that someone could have reversed the door knob, moving inside out, and vice versa. Garvin admits it is his show, but refuses to answer if he stepped in the pool of blood. He entered Casselman's apartment about eleven. He won't answer if he wiped fingerprints. Yes, it is his gun. He refuses to answer about other activities. He got the gun from his sporting goods store, kept two, gave his son one. We now have a Junior gun, a Holster gun, and a Safe gun. He gave his Holster gun to Stephanie, then put the Safe gun in his holster. When he returned to Stephanie's, did he see the Holster gun, and had it been fired. Yes. Mason asks why Senior gave the gun to Falkner, and he confesses he loves her. "Stephanie Falkner, sitting behind Mason at the bar, suddenly put a handkerchief to her eyes and started sobbing." Mason continues. Had Garvin not uncovered information that made him believe Casselman murdered Glenn Falkner, Stephanie's father? Burger is livid, objects, is sustained, but Mason points out that this is part of a conversation previously admitted, so he can get the whole conversation. Once this is in, Mason asks to have all of Garvin's testimony stricken, since "there is no evidence whatsoever showing that the defendant knew of the things Garvin was doing or had any inkling of what he intended to so. She is not bound" by what he may have done thinking he was helping her. Judge Decker notes that his giving the defendant the gun fully loaded, and fining it later having been fired, is pertinent, and Mason agrees that may stay in. Court adjourns overnight.
18.	Homer Garvin Junior is Burger's surprise witness. Burger tries to get in evidence from Junior that Mason switched guns, but Mason argues that Junior is concluding what happened because he could not explain things otherwise. The conclusion is objected to and sustained. They go in circles. Mason suggests that his wife might have switched guns when she brought the gun he left on his dresser to his office. Judge Decker suggests to "the discomfited District Attorney" that he prove what bullet was fired from the gun in Mason's hand, but the D A admits he cannot do that. On his way from the stand, Junior under his breath says to Mason, "I'll kill you for this." Mason recalls him, forces him to make this statement to the Court, which sentences him to twenty-four hours in jail. Eva Elliott is called. She testifies to Senior's coming to the office, telling her he had talked with the man who killed Stephanie's father. He took off his coat. She noticed the revolver in his holster, tho she cannot identify it, and he took it off, placed it on his desk, and took a shower. Mason takes over, and she says he arrived about a quarter to nine. Mrs Garvin Junior is called. She took a gun to her husband. She was asleep so probably didn't hear her husband's phone calls. For all she knew, the gun on the dresser had been fired. She responds that then there would have been two fired shells after Mason fired it. Lorraine Kettle, a woman who lives in a ground floor apartment at the Ambrose testifies to seeing a woman come out the back and go to a car driven by Mason. Mason shows her that she is only "pretty certain" of whom she saw. Burger rests. Mason asks the jury be instructed to return a verdict of not guilty, since there is merely an inference, a suspicion. The court recesses. Mason tells Stephanie she has to go on the stand. She refuses, absolutely.
19.	Mason, Street and Drake are eating a gloomy luncheon when Gertie rushes in, says Marie has found bloody towels in Garvin's office. Mason tells her to get Marie to bring the towels in a paper bag to court. He then springs the idea of Stephanie switching guns, and the police stopping their search when they found one gun. Mason can so confuse the court with a reasonable hypothesis other than guilt, they'll have to free her. "It'll be a circus!" Mason is now convinced that she must have switched the guns and that's why she won't go on the stand.
20.	Mason recalls Eva Elliott. His first set of questions are objected to. Mason asks about checks to Acme Electric when there was none such and no orders, then, wasn't the sending of these bills part of a conspiracy which biases her against Gavin? Eva interrupts saying that she didn't get a penny, Casselman promised . . . She admits Casselman had promised she'd be his entertainer when the new motel went up. Marie, very obviously pregnant, parades in with her bag of bloodied towels, which Mason dramatically reveals. Mason asks if she didn't substitute the Safe gun for the Holster gun. She admits she did it in self-defense. Burger is at a loss, wants a half-hour recess, which Mason opposes. Then Burger says he has put on his case and he has already rested. Mason says the defense will not put on any evidence. the judge asks questions, and Eva admits she took the gun from Garvin's safe to bluff Casselman. He tried to choke her, to break her neck and, when things went black, she heard a boom.
21.	Around his law office table, with whisky, soda, ice cubes and glasses, Perry, Della, Homer Senior, Paul and Stephanie, the last named admits she saw Homer come out of the apartment and was certain he'd murdered Casselman, and she wasn't going to turn State's evidence. Apparently Eva went up between Garvin and Stephanie. Garvin was ready to take the blame for Stephanie. The two laugh. Garvin writes Mason a blank check. Junior phones in to apologize, and say he'll take another six hundred off the price of the x-60.

Mildred Crest	Restaurant waiter	Bellboy
Robert Joiner	Drake's operator	Vista operator
Pillsbury & Maxwell general manager	Taxi driver	Bull-necked guard
Service station attendant	Mrs Harrod, Nellie Elliston	Foley Calvert
Fern Driscoll	Dr Arlington	Judge Marvin C Bolton
An elderly couple	Taxi driver two	Hamilton Burger
Man with fire extinguisher	Sgt Holcomb	Oceanside workers
Various fire-fighters and spectators	Holcomb's partner, Ray	Oceanside police chief
Forrester "Forrie" Baylor	Police photographer	Bank manager
Perry Mason	Fingerprint officer	Mildred's former employer
Della Street	Two additional officers	Autopsy surgeon
Carl Harrod	Drake's night operator	George Kinney
Woman across the hall	Paul Drake	Irma Karnes
Katherine "Kitty" Baylor	Ten Drake operatives	Gertie
[Carla Addis]	Vista Hotel house dick	Court spectators
Margaret Baylor	Mildred's apartment manager	Rexmore janitor
Harrimon Baylor	Two men with Mildred

In his Foreword, Erle Stanley Gardner dedicates this novel to Theodore J Curphey, M D, who was instrumental in bringing together the study of law with the study of medicine by establishing the Institute of Legal Medicine as Coroner of Los Angeles County.

In one of the longest opening chapters ever by Erle Stanley Gardner, we really learn about only one character of the drama that lies ahead of us. It is one-eleventh of the book.

Does Gardner ever deal in in-jokes? How about a ritzy hotel called Vista del Camino, View of the Road?

One.	Mildred Crest was one of the happiest women in Oceanside. She was engaged to Robert Joiner, who had risen from bookkeeper to head accountant at the department store firm of Pillsbury & Maxwell. At two-fifteen she gets a call from him and he says, "our engagement is annulled, canceled, discontinued, terminated, and rescinded." He blames it on the ponies and his penchant for gambling, and losing. She takes out every penny in her savings account and cashes her pay check, then bathes and puts on her newest traveling outfit. At four-forty the general manager of Pillsbury & Maxwell phones. Mildred tells him the engagement is broken. She gets in her car, starts driving, nowhere in particular. She stops for gasoline and as an attendant is filling the gas tank she notices a young woman standing nearby. Fern Driscoll comes over, asks to ride with Mildred. She's just a foot-loose doll from the midwest. As they head up a winding mountain grade and a deep canyon appears beyond the shoulder of the road, Fern suggests, "Wouldn't it be fine just to plunge into that blackness?" A bit later, with an hysterical laugh, Fern forces the car off the road into the canyon. The car crashes down the canyon. When it settles, she sees that Fern had gotten her door partially open when the car struck a huge rock. Then she thinks, why not become Fern Driscoll? She takes her purse, takes out all the bills from her own purse, lights a match to see her way to putting her own purse back in the car. The match burns her fingers, falls, ignites leaking gasoline. She goes downhill by way of a rock-strewn stream bed, gets to the road. Sirens, fire-fighting apparatus, and several cars are stopped on the road. Mildred finds a kindly-looking couple, says she was sleeping in the back of a car and her parents must have driven off thinking she was under a blanket sleeping. They get her to Riverside where she takes a bus in to Los Angeles and a hotel where she registers as F Driscoll. In Fern's purse she finds a driver's license indicating Fern is from Lansing, Michigan, and letters indicate she had a boyfriend name Forrie. Thus Mildred Crest became Fern Driscoll. She changed her hair color and took to wearing dark glasses. The next day the Oceanside paper tells of the death of Mildred Crest in an auto accident. Within twenty-four hours she had a job with Consolidated Sales and Distribution Company. Then followed problems. Mildred's purse had not been consumed, and no bills were found. Tracks showed someone left the wreck, and the ignition and headlight switches had been turned off. So the body was examined, and was found to be two months pregnant, and the body was dead before the fire. The service station attendant remembered the driver picking up a hitchhiker.
Two.	Consolidated Sales offices are on the same floor as Perry Mason's, so Mildred had thought of going to Mason, to Della Street, for an appointment, but didn't. Back at her apartment an insurance adjuster, Carl Harrod, meets her She lets him in so the woman across the hall won't hear. He tells her he wants a statement that she lit the fire to the car and took money from Mildred Crest. He points out it was not difficult to find her, as her suitcase did not burn for a man with a fire extinguisher arrived right after the fire started and put it out. He leaves to let her think it over.
Three.	Della tells Mason that a woman at Consolidated Sales wants to see him. She comes right over, tells her story from the start as if she were Fern, but stating the accident was caused by a car she couldn't avoid, then how Carl Harrod came to her with what seems like a blackmail threat. She has never reported the accident. Mason has her write down what she is to say if he returns, namely that he is to contact her attorney, she has nothing to say. She takes it quickly in shorthand. Mason takes a nickel for fee. When she leaves Mason notes her description of the accident is not normal, so not true. He tells Della to keep an eye on her in the elevator and rest room.
Four.	Kitty Baylor has come down from San Francisco to see Fern, whom she has never seen before. She knows of Harrod, and thins this is either legitimate blackmail on his part, or a shake-down by Fern. Mildred breaks down and admits she's not Fern, but Perry Mason has given her the means of dealing with Harrod. Kitty learned of Fern's problem through her sister Margaret. She cannot believe her dad would pay off Fern.
Five.	Kitty has gone to an arcade and returns with three ice picks, keeps one for her own use, leaves. Harriman Baylor calls and says he's coming up to see his Fern. Mildred takes Forrie's letters, leaves as the elevator comes up.
Six.	Della Street and Perry Mason are finishing dinner when the waiter says he's to call Drake's operator. Della makes the call, says Fern wants him to call immediately and Harrod has called from the Dixiecrat Apartments. Fern says she returned to her apartment at the Rexmore and lashed out in the darkened room at a charging intruder with an ice pick and she can't find it, and she hasn't reported to the police and doesn't want to. Mason calls Harrod, who is having fits of coughing and claims Mason's client struck him with an ice pick. They go first to Fern's where she tells them about Kitty giving her the ice picks. Mason sends Della to Arcade Novelty to get three more. Fern says Kitty has the third ice pick. She's from Lansing, Her father Harriman is rich, her brother Forrester got her pregnant. Two months. No, she's not really pregnant. Mason finds the letters in her purse, and Fern's money. She admits she's Mildred Crest. Della returns with three picks, forty-one cents each, where the others were thirty-eight, three for a dollar. Mason adds two to Mildred's collection, tells her to remove the price tags and flush them down the toilet. They take a taxi, Mason directing the driver to the Dixiecrat Apartments, then half a block past. He overtips the driver, who says he won't forget this, so Mason suggests he give back the two dollar tip on the five dollar ride. The driver forgets, and gets another three dollars. In the hallway they meet a woman who takes them to Carl who identifies her as Mrs Harrod, Nellie. Carl is cold and wrapped in a blanket. He claims Fern Driscoll stabbed him. While he and Mason argue, Della plants an ice pick in the kitchen. Nellie gets him a glass half-filled with water, and he sends her back to make it a quarter, for whisky. He's an investigator for an insurance company and an undercover correspondent for The Real Low-down. He has everything he needs except Fern's letters, but he'll trade for silence over the stabbing. He won't go to a doctor or the police, but Mason insists that his doctor see him. Carl also knows that Fern is Mildred Crest.
Seven.	Mason calls Dr Arlington, then took a cab to get his car and return to the Dixiecrat Apartments where he meets with the doctor, sends him up.
Eight.	While Perry and Della await Dr Arlington's return, the police arrive. Sgt Holcomb spots them, asks what Mason is doing there just as Arlington comes out, and is spied by Holcomb, and called over. Mason reminds Holcomb that his job is at the scene of the crime, and Holcomb demands he wait. Mason says fifteen minutes only. Another car with a coroner and fingerprint man arrive and Mason, Street and Arlington are left with Holcomb's partner, Ray. Holcomb returns and orders the trio to be held there until he has time to reach Fern Driscoll.
Nine.	Paul Drake's night operator tells Perry and Della the detective is in. Mason tells him about a girl using the name of Fern Driscoll, Harriman Baylor, Katherine and Forrester, and Carl Harrod, who has no present. Fern is really Mildred Crest. Either Kitty or Mildred stabbed Carl. Drake says he'll put ten men on the job with in ten minutes, and each will add as many as they need. Shortly Drake reports a photo of Harriman arriving by plane indicates he has bursitis in his left shoulder. The Vista del Camino Hotel house dick says the Baylors are off limits, but Harriman is expecting a call from "Howley." Della tries to phone Mildred, but the hotel manager said she left with two men. Mason goes to the Vista del Camino and uses the house phones to call Baylor who asks, after Mason says "Howley," what other name he's known by. Baylor hangs up when Mason hesitates. The house dick rushes shortly thereafter to the house phones, and a bellboy pages "Mr Howley," but Mason is at the cigar stand. Mason goes to the hotel drugstore and gets the Vista operator to get Harriman on the line. "Carl Harrod" is the other name, guesses Mason correctly. This gets Mason past the bull-necked guard outside Baylor's suite, but not past Baylor. When Mason says Harrod, who is dead, says it could have been Katherine who stabbed him instead of Fern, Baylor shakes with his left hand and admits Mason. Baylor insists a marriage between Forrester and Fern was impossible because of her low social status. He says he'll pay Mason's fees.
Ten.	Perry tells Della that Baylor put on a bold front, yet will cave in, and Kitty is involved somehow. Drake reports what we already know about Mildred and Robert Joiner's embezzlement. Harrod was stabbed, first admitting by Kitty, then Mildred. Nellie said she thought Carl was acting to get more out of Mason, but he got chills after Mason left and died within five minutes. Police found four thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills in Mildred's apartment.
Eleven.	Foley Calvert, Hamilton Burger's trial deputy for the case, tells Judge Marvin C Bolton He wants to make a statement as to how his proof will be submitted. He asserts that Mildred Crest wanted from the start to disappear and looked for a substitute whose identity she could take. Minor witnesses, workers from where Mildred worked in Oceanside, the two police chief, Mildred's bank manager testify, then her former employer. A highway patrol officer who came to the accident scene says Mildred started the fire with a match, but Mason gets him to admit the match could have been there from before the accident. The autopsy surgeon says Fern was hit on head with round object before she died. He suggests that maybe Mildred wanted to commit suicide. Mason says that then the murder of Fern would have done her no good. Mason gets the autopsy surgeon to admit Fern could have been hit her head as the car plummeted into the ravine. The Consolidated Sales and Distribution Company manager testifies of giving a job to "Fern Driscoll" of Lansing, Michigan. George Kinney, cashier for Baylor Manufacturing and Development Company testifies to having dismissed Fern, giving her a check for wages and severance. At that time she was shaken, her eyes swollen and red. Mason learns that Fern had a secondhand car registered in Michigan. Calvert is denied the right to ask about money the cashier might have given to Forrester Baylor. Sgt Holcomb testifies to finding four thousand dollars in one hundred dollar bills in Nellie's apartment. Irma Karnes from the Arcade Novelty Company testifies that the defendant bought a second set of three ice picks at 41¢ each.
Twelve.	In a private dining room near the courthouse Mason argues with Della and Paul that circumstantial evidence is the best, if interpreted properly. Karnes was given a surreptitious view of Mildred, no lineup. The police have the wrong ice pick as the weapon. Mason wants Drake to find Fern's car.
Thirteen.	Irma Karnes wears glasses, except when asleep, but Mason does not pursue questions of her vision and ability to identify a person with her poor vision (as he has in previous cases). He suggests that she was expected to identify Katherine Baylor as the first purchaser, then was expected by suggestion to identify Mildred Crest as the second purchaser, with three policemen discussing Mildred as the murderer while she was given ten minutes to identify her. Irma admits the police suggested Mason might "run in a ringer." Her "cash has always balanced out to the penny." While making change in ten seconds, and observing others in the store, so giving two or three seconds to the buyer, she took ten minutes to be certain it was Mildred when she was given time to concentrate solely on her. Irma refuses to budge. Kitty Baylor admits she bought three ice picks for a dollar, and she slapped Carl Harrod, a blackmailer. . . Her father told her to throw away her ice pick. She admits Sgt Holcomb didn't want it to appear she might have stabbed Carl. Mason asks why, if Mildred had two ice picks, she would buy another three. Calvert asserts that the three were to confuse the issue as Mason so often does. Nellie Elliston admits she was not yet married to Carl. He came home with a nosebleed, went back out, returned coughing. Mason and Street came and Carl tried to get damages from them. When they left, he gave a dying statement, saying Mildred stabbed him. The ice pick is introduced in evidence. Mason asks about the 41¢ price on the ice pick. Weren't two picks in the drawer. Yes, the murder weapon was at front. Carl came home with one which he put in the sink. She saw pink in the sink, and washed the pick. On cross Mason tried to get Nellie to admit that in "rather poor light" it might have been Kitty Baylor who stabbed him. She says that Carl became indignant at such a suggestion. Did Carl phone Baylor. Calvert argues she cannot know who answered. Mason gets her to admit he spoke to someone he called "Mr Baylor" by name, twice. Mason recalls Irma, confronts her with Della. Irma won't budge [one must ask, didn't Della get a receipt for her purchase, which presentation would impeach Irma?].
Fourteen.	Mason tells Della and Paul that Della will have to testify, since Judge Bolton's body language indicates he is interested in the case and has not yet made a decision to bind Mildred over for trial. He tells Mildred that she must testify, and it will be an ordeal.
Fifteen.	Hamilton Burger has now come to court, and warns they'll get Della for perjury if she testifies to buying the ice picks. Della testifies she did purchase three ice picks at 41¢ each and gives other details to corroborate her story. Burger insists she lies. Mildred then tells her story from being jilted to picking up Fern, how the car went off the road. Burger asks if she didn't suspect Robert Joiner of embezzlement, and didn't she put Ferns four thousand dollars in an envelope marked "property of Fern Driscoll" only after Carl Harrod was stabbed and at the suggestion of Perry Mason? Didn't she learn to sign her name like Fern Driscoll? She insists she accidentally dropped the match that started the fire, and insists she didn't buy any ice picks, as Burger hammers away trying to break her testimony and composure.
Sixteen.	Gertie is all aflutter. Handsome Forrester Baylor has come to the office. Forrester says he came despite his father, and he is incognito. He is certain Fern was not pregnant. He wants Mason to put his father on the stand and make him admit he gave Fern four thousand dollars. Drake joins them. The four thousand came from a bank robbery in Midfield, Arkansas, by a woman dressed as a man, who resembles Fern. Her car has been found between Phoenix and Prescott, Arizona, in a canyon. Mason gets a photo of Fern from Forrester, gives it to Drake, and tells him to circulate it in every motel within three hours of Midfield. Notify the press and the F B I. Forrester threatens Mason for doing this.
Seventeen.	Judge Bolton admonishes court spectators to keep quiet. Mason calls Harriman Baylor to the stand, and Hamilton Burger states that Baylor has no knowledge regarding facts of this case. When Baylor steps up to be sworn, Burger offers that Baylor's bursitis makes it necessary for him to be sworn with his left hand. Mason challenges Burger for giving testimony, not only that, but "testimony which is founded purely on hearsay." Mason says he cannot lift his right hand because of an ice pick wound. Mason states that when Baylor arrived he waved his right hand as shown in a photo. Mason "felt a natural resentment that any statement [he] made as to the cause of Mr Baylor's injury was accepted with the gravest doubt, whereas the district attorney was permitted to give the Court the benefit of his solemn assurance, an assurance which, as it turns out, was predicated entirely on hearsay testimony, and that he received no rebuke." Baylor, trapped, admits Mason is correct, his right shoulder is badly infected from an ice pick wound. He reveals how, just this once, he had agreed to blackmail. He knew the letters Fern had would be damaging to the family, so bribed the Rexmore janitor to get into her apartment. Mildred came back and, in the dark, he charged her. He never saw the ice pick, and noticed it when he was out of the apartment. Carl saw him before he got away, and the two struck a deal. Carl would claim he'd been stabbed, and bargain for the letters which he'd pass on to Baylor for big bucks. They knew Mason wouldn't care for his own safety, but would protect his client at all costs. The judge now wants to know who inflicted the wound on Carl Harrod. Mason says there is only one person who could have possibly done it. Carl had not anticipated Mason would call in a doctor. So, after Mason left, he asked Nellie to inflict enough of a wound to convince the doctor. Nellie realized she could get the ten thousand Harriman had already paid Carl, so stabbed him dead. Mason tells the judge he knows this because, knowing that Irma Karnes was identifying the defendant not because of a transaction at the arcade, but due to mental suggestion by improper police methods, he then remembered the picture of Baylor waving with his right hand but later shaking Mason left-handedly. The judge has seen Miss Elliston slip out of court, suggests the D A's officers pick her up for questioning. Mason asks "in order to keep the record straight, and in view of Mr Baylor's statement" he calls his "last witness, Fern Driscoll." Even the judge thinks this might be a trick, but "a rather tall, dark-eyed, chestnut-haired, young woman" walks to the stand and is sworn in as Fern Driscoll. She testifies to leaving Lansing as not wanted, picking up a hitchhiker who was down on her luck and in trouble, apparently temporarily insane, and getting hit over the head, finding herself on the road, with no one interested in her story. It wasn't until the press got hold of the story that the F B I located her. She says the defendant is not the woman who took her car. Burger has no questions, and that is Mason's case. The judge dismisses the case. Forrester rushes to take Fern in his arms.
Eighteen.	Della says she's "so darned excited" that she wants to cry. Mason says go ahead. He says that the actions of Mildred's hitchhiker didn't match the picture he had of Fern Driscoll. When Harriman Baylor got palsy-walsy with Carl Harrod, he gradually got the picture. The pregnancy was another out-of-place factor. He knew that Mildred couldn't have stabbed Carl with the pick introduced in court. Either the police mixed-up the picks, or Nellie Elliston was the only person who could have killed Carl Harrod. Mason says that Mildred is being given a very nice job at Baylor Manufacturing and Development and Harriman says she'll advance as fast and far as her ability warrants. Della's eyes are misty. She asks Mason to bend over so she can kiss him on the forehead. He says he's afraid he cannot bend that far, will she mind if he's a few inches short? "Not at all."

George Ansley	Frank Ferney	Coroner
Meredith Borden	Dawn's male motorist	Autopsy surgeon
Construction inspector	Lt Tragg	Beeman Nelson
"Beatrice Cornell"	Loretta Nann Harper	Jason Horn
Perry Mason	Court clerk	Four Drake operatives
Della Street	Courtroom spectators	Dr Margaret Callison
Beatrice Cornell	Judge Erwood	Millicent Kendell
Paul Drake	Sam Drew	Jason Kendell
Headquarters police	Hamilton Burger	Court bailiff
Woman at Borden's	Surveyor	Newspaper reporters
Stolen car department office	Marianna Fremont	Photographers
Mason's switchboard operator (Gertie)	Officer Gordon C Gibbs	Morely Edmond
Ansley's secretary	Alexander Redfield	James Goodwin
Dawn Manning	Harvey Dennison

Hubert Winston Smith, AB, MBA, LLB and MB, qualifies for Erle Stanley Gardner's dedication in his Foreword because of his interest in promoting more attention to "psychic income."

Here seems to be the only instance when no question is raised if the murder weapon had fingerprints on it.

This is also the first case in which Mason saves a client by virtually convicting another, then takes that person on as his client.

This is poorly constructed, as the reader does not get evidence Mason puts on until he puts it on, thus depriving the reader of any opportunity to solve the mystery before Mason does.

One.	George Ansley drives up to Meredith Borden's mansion following the curving driveway a quarter mile from iron gates. Ansley, who is going broke at his construction site because of inspector troubles, is greeted by Borden because the servants are off for the night. Borden is a public relations person, and he knows that even inspectors don't like publicity. For a fee, more like a percentage of his profits, Ansley will be guaranteed by Borden of no more trouble. Ansley agrees, leaves. Near the gate another car swerves, bumps him and goes into the underbrush. George finds a girl on the ground, rescues her, and takes her to her apartment. She gives her name as Beatrice Cornell, leads him on, and he kisses her.
Two.	Perry Mason and Della Street are finishing dinner the Golden Owl Night Club with brandy and Benedictine when George Ansley comes to the attorney with his problem. He tells Mason about the accident and finding the girl unconscious, then taking her to the Ancordia Apartments. Perry has Della phone Beatrice Cornell, who states she is a working girl and hasn't been out all night. Her description doesn't fit the girl Ansley picked up. Della phones Drake, returns with the information that the wrecked Cadillac is a stolen car. The police want to know what Drake knows.
Three.	The three go to Borden's. The see evidence of two women, one having dragged the unconscious one into hiding. Before they finish the search a gong goes off and the iron gates close. They hear dogs barking, and climb, precariously, over the wall, using the men's jackets to cover sharp broken glass and barbed wire, leaving behind threads and torn fabric. Mason finds the button for the gate phone, buzzes it, and a woman answers, then Della gets a man who identifies himself as Borden. She reports the accident,refuses to giver her name. They leave, Mason dropping Ansley off at his car. Mason accompanies Della to her apartment where he makes her a hot buttered rum with Bacardi, but only coffee for himself. Then they go to Mason's to dry him off, then to the office where they are joined by Drake, who calls an officer in the stolen car department. Mason gives the information, then tells Paul to go home, and he and Della are going to the Purple Swan, have two or three hot buttered rums, and take a taxi home. "I won't drive when I've been drinking" states Mason.
Four.	Della has Mason's switchboard operator (Gertie) get Paul for the lawyer as soon as he arrives. Drake right away suggests Mason was at Borden's; hasn't Mason heard that Borden was found dead at seven o'clock in the morning. Drake gives a report which, unbeknown to him, fits Mason's nocturnal activities. Mason says he's not interested in the murder, but Drake has noted that when he and Della went out to dinner they had different clothes than when they came into his office later. Della reaches Ansley's secretary on the phone, but not the boss. Mason suggests to Della that she take a day off to do some shopping, then goes to the Ancordia to visit the real Beatrice Cornell. He explains enough of the situation, agrees to be a photographer so as to see photos of Cornell's models. Dawn Manning fits the description of the injured girl, so she is called to come to the Ancordia while Mason picks up photographic equipment.
Five.	Mason returns to Beatrice Cornell's apartment to find Dawn Manning awaiting him. He takes out a cigarette, she bums one from him. Then Dawn shows Beatrice her bruises, apologizes to Mason that she won't be available for a few days to pose. He explains he's a lawyer, wants to know about the automobile accident. She explains how she was at a party, couldn't find a taxi when she left, but was picked up someone who must have been at the party. As they were driving, she sensed a trap when the woman driver wanted to turn in to Borden's place, for her former husband, Frank Ferney, was an associate of Borden's. She grabbed the wheel, the car skidded, she woke up lying on damp grass. The other woman was gone. She hitchhiked back to town. She didn't get the name of the motorist. When he got frisky, she slapped him, got out and took the bus. The accident was three minutes past nine, because her watch broke in the crash. She left Borden's about nine-thirty-five, got home about ten-fifteen. Mason says he wants pictures, bruises and all, and Beatrice will help with the Strobolite.
Six.	Mason is at the Family Kitchen Cafeteria for lunch. He has stuffed bell peppers, diced carrots, fried eggplant, pineapple-cottage-cheese salad, and a pot of coffee. As soon as he is settled, a shadow comes over him. It is Lt Tragg. Mason persuades him to indulge in the bell peppers. Tragg explains how the police depend on a person's modus operandi to track down people. Mason is "brilliant to the point of being a genius" but his modus operandi led Tragg to this restaurant. He pumps Mason, finally gets the story of Mason finding the car, surmising there were two women, one of whom is Dawn Manning, the other who went to the Ancordia Apartments as if she were Beatrice Cornell. Tragg confers with headquarters where the unknown woman has been tracked down by finding the taxi that took her from the Ancordia.
Seven.	Tragg takes Mason to the Dormain Apartments where a clerk is taken aback, notes two Harpers, send them to Loretta Nann Harper. She fits the description of the unknown girl. Her story is that Dawn Manning stopped the Cadillac in front of her and at gunpoint made her join her. Dawn accused her of playing around with Frank Ferney. Well, she is, and Frank never got the divorce he had promised Dawn, so she was mad, half-crazy, and when she swung into the Borden place, there was another car coming out. They touched, and she crashed. She pulled Dawn into the bushes, called for help, got her and Dawn's purse, and rode into town with Ansley. Mason goes over the time element. Dawn picked her up at eight-forty,the accident was shortly after nine. She was with him on the Borden grounds to near nine thirty, when he drove her to the Ancordia. Tragg states she violated the Motor Vehicle Act and concealed a felony. He's taking her downtown, without Mason.
Eight.	On the phone, Beatrice says Dawn would lie if it were about murder. She records all telephone calls, including the current one, and the time they start, but not when the doorbell rings. He phones Gertie, and Ansley is in the office. Upon questioning at the office, Mason takes Ansley to his car, and in the glove compartment they find a revolver. Lt Tragg joins them, takes the gun and Ansley to Headquarters.
Nine.	The clerk indicates the spectators should be seated and Judge Elwood calls the case. Sam Drew, one of Hamilton Burger's trial deputies, opens noting that this is a preliminary hearing and he only needs show the reasonable possibility that the defendant committed the crime. A surveyor shows a sketch of the Borden estate and a map of the city with the location of the Golden Owl Night Club. Meredith Borden's housekeeper, Marianna Fremont, states she cam to work in the morning, prepared Borden's breakfast, didn't find him in his bedroom, then found him, dead, in his photographic studio. A photo is introduced to show the position of Borden. Officer Gordon C Gibbs testifies to going to Ansley's apartment and taking a jacket which had what looked like blood stains to the police laboratory. The cleaner had identified it as Ansley's. Ansley whispers to Mason that the spots are from a nosebleed. Mason gets the officer to admit he doesn't know how long the stains were on the jacket, or if they might not be from a nosebleed. Lt Tragg testifies to finding a gun in Ansley's glove compartment, giving it to Alexander Redfield. Ansley went with him to headquarters and made out a written statement as to his activities the night of the murder. Harvey Dennison, owner and proprietor of Valley View Hardware Company testifies to the gun having been stolen. Alexander Redfield testifies that the gun was the one that fired the bullet that killed Borden. The coroner testifies to finding the bullet in the body and giving it to Redfield. The autopsy surgeon states that the bullet had brought about instant death. The blood on Ansley's jacket was rare type AB, found in less than twelve percent of people, and it was Borden's blood type. He admits he doesn't know Ansley's blood type. Ansley doesn't know his blood type. Beeman Nelson, operator of a cleaning establishment, says he cleaned the jacket about ten days before the murder. By now Judge Erwood is prepared to bind the defendant over to trial, but Drew persists, calls Jasper Horn, foreman at Ansley's construction site. He says that inspectors were giving them all sorts of trouble, so he suggested Ansley should see Borden. Mason gets him to say this went on through Monday, the day of the murder, but the next day the job inspector was amiable, and told him there'd be no more trouble. Frank Ferney is called, says he was a general assistant to Borden, "did whatever needed to be done" including keeping "liquor glasses full." Yes, he knows the housekeeper, who had the day off. Then he usually cooks. Mason objects to his setting the time of the Monday meal at which he wasn't present. Ferney admits that Borden could have eaten at five after six after he had left, or at eight-thirty, or even after Ansley had left. So this won't help in setting the time of death. Mason asks about the wall and who had keys. There was a rear gate through which a person could slip,but not a car. There were two telephones, so he could answer while Borden listened. Borden would then cut in if he wanted to take the call, and if he didn't, he, Ferney would dispose of the call. Borden spent most of his time in his study, but he would be alone, or with models, in the photographic studio. Judge Erwood says Drew could have quit a half hour earlier and the defendant would have been bound over. Mason stands, says he believes "There is one point which is very much in doubt." It is the time element, which indicates that, if Mason's client did the murder, "he must have done so before nine o'clock." Mason will show that "Borden was alive and well a long time after nine o'clock." This will take all afternoon, and the judge had thought this would be a routine trial. Mason makes the point that, since the body was found in the photographic studio, he must have gone there to make photographs, and not of himself. Mason wants all exposed plates and developed films to be produced. Drew protests that such photographs have no bearing on the case whatever, but the judge reminds the prosecutor that the defense can call the witnesses who have the photos. Mason has Drake signal to four men to serve subpoenas on Loretta Harper, Dawn Manning, Beatrice Cornell and Frank Ferney. One of the woman is lying, Harper or Manning.
Ten.	When court reconvenes, Mason calls Della Street. Hamilton Burger makes a grand entrance, then Della tells of Ansley's coming to the Golden Owl Night Club about ten, the three going to Borden's to investigate the accident, crawling over the wall, phoning Borden and getting first a woman, then a man who identified himself as Borden, this now after eleven o'clock. Burger calls Frank Ferney as a rebuttal witness. He states that he arrived at the Borden place with Dr Margaret Callison, a veterinary. He assumed Borden was in the studio, then the alarm went off and he had to get the dogs back to the kennel. Then the phone rang and he answered Miss Street's call, claimed to be Borden. Mason infers that Ferney had Callison in his bedroom, but Ferney states he was in Borden's study. He was supposed to pick up the doctor at nine but overslept, was wakened by his fiancée, Loretta Harper, near ten twenty. He is married to Dawn Manning. He admits only to calling and looking for Borden. Mason moves on to the photographic evidence, and Burger says they have no significance. The court orders them to be produced. They show Dawn in artistic nude arrangement. When the judge orders Ferney to look at the photos, he exclaims "That's my wife." Drew recapitulates that Dr Callison answered the phone just after eleven, then he took over. Mason wants Harvey Dennison back, and he gets him to admit that Dawn was in his employ when the gun was stolen. Burger gets him to state that he never questioned Dawn's honesty. Burger is done. Mason wants Loretta Harper on the stand. She testifies to Dawn's holding a gun on her as they drove through the Borden gates around nine. Ansley saw Dawn on the ground, and while he was away, Loretta dragged Dawn twenty or so feet away, then put herself in the position Dawn was in. She yelled "help" and Ansley came back, took her into town. She is certain Dawn regained consciousness, and regained possession of the gun. She is certain that Dawn went on to the Borden house because she was photographed there. She recognizes the artistic nude photos. Of course she doesn't know this of her own knowledge, thinks Burger, just that her photographs were there. But Loretta says Frank went to the studio door, knocked, and was told by Dawn to go away, which he did. This "conclusion" is stricken from the records. Mason now recalls Ferney, who says he didn't mention knocking and hearing his wife because he wasn't asked. He didn't go into the room because it might have been dark for developing photos. He admits he's separated but, due to an argument with his lawyer, things were not finalized. Mason digs in. Ferney lied to Loretta, not letting her know he was not yet divorced. At Loretta's apartment, Millicent and Jason Kendell were the other guests. They helped put him in bed in his drunk condition. When he gets to Dr Callison, Loretta shouts, "Quit trying to protect her! Mr Mason, ask him what he told Dr Callison! He-" Judge Erwood holds her in contempt. Ferney now admits that, as he was driving away, he thought he heard a shot. Mason wants to ask a question leading to impeachment. Did he not tell Loretta Harper that he knew his wife killed Borden and he would do all he could to protect her? Yes, says Ferney. Mason wants a subpoena for Dr Callison, but Burger says he's rested his case. Judge Erwood grants a ten minute recess. Drake rushes off to serve the subpoena. Perry confides with Della that something is wrong, because back of this is a crooked politician calling himself a public relations expert, who has to handle bribes. To protect himself, he'd keep a tape recording. He figures Lt Tragg will tell the truth.
Eleven.	Hamilton Burger protests any continuance, but Mason assures that he wants to recall one witness, the reason for which will become obvious shortly in to the examination. Lt Tragg is asked to describe what he found at the scene of the murder. Did he not find something which he thought significant, but which he was told by the district attorney to suppress. Tragg eventually says he found a tape recorder and tape with a conversation which he was told not to mention. Mason asks for the recording. Burger says it will take thirty minutes to bring. The Court will take a recess then, for half an hour. Drew whispers to Burger, who says it will take only ten minutes. The change prompts Mason to say that a half-hour delay would allow him to get Dr Callison there, so he changed to ten minutes to deny Mason his witness. Judge Erwood sees through Burger, says the thirty minute recess stands.
Twelve.	Drake brings Dr Margaret Callison to Mason at court. She says she got Ferney's call at ten-twenty-five. She says the only time inside the Borden mansion that Ferney was out of her sight was when he went to the studio. She heard him knock, but did not hear any answer. The recording is played. After Ansley is wished goodbye, a thudding sound is heard, then the tape ceases to record. Burger claims the muffled sound is a gun. Mason gets Ferney to admit he doesn't remember what Borden said when he knocked on the door. He told Callison he heard a noise like a shot. Mason's explanation is that Ansley left, the thudding sound was the door slamming shut, then Borden went to the hidden tape recorder, which Ansley could not have known about, and turned it off. The next morning inspectors at Ansley's site were courteous, meaning Borden had carried through on arrangements after Ansley left the house. Judge Erwood releases Ansley. Newspaper reporters hurried to phone their newspapers as photographers photographed Hamilton Burger who was "glowering at the group around Mason.
Thirteen.	Della informs Perry that he has another client, a murder case, that of Meredith Borden. Dawn Manning is in durance vile, and has used her phone call to as Mason to represent her. Della wants him to say no, especially as he expects Burger to arrange that the trial will come up before Judge Erwood.
Fourteen.	Mason is in the visitor's room as the women's section of the Detention. Dawn says she hasn't much to pay on a fee, but she feels that Mason owes her some consideration. She didn't like Borden, couldn't recognize Harper, and doesn't know where they got the nude photos, as she never posed nude for Borden. She has posed nude, but not for Borden, and she has never carried a gun. You can't conceal one in the folds of a Bikini.
Fifteen.	Judge Erwood notes that the last time Mason was in court, he pointed the finger of suspicion at the current defendant. Mason counters that that evidence will now be presented by the district attorney, and he will cross-examine the witnesses. Drew is back for the preliminaries, and goes through the usual motions. Burger calls Harvey Dennison, who once again tells the story of the missing gun. Mason asks him if he consulted his records, and elicits the fact that fifteen employees could have taken the gun. During two burglaries, only sporting goods and money were stolen. Burger calls Ferney. Mason objects to Ferney answering any questions about the murder because he was married to the defendant at that time. He says that he has just obtained a divorce in Reno. Mason argues that the statement made by Dawn to her husband at the door of the studio was a confidential communication. Burger is apoplectic in his anger, but the judge suggests these things can be argued at the trial. Mason asks the judge if this isn't intimating in advance what his decision will be. The judge says he is not precluding the defense from putting on any evidence it may desire. Burger calls Harper, who testifies that the defendant had accused her of playing around with her husband, and that she was taken out to Borden's, and so forth. She aroused Ferney who took Callison to Burden's. That's Burger's case. Mason calls Beatrice Cornell, who testifies to Dawn's condition on the morning after the murder, showing "unsightly bruises." Mason then calls Morely Edmond, an expert photographer, who says they could not have been made in Borden's studio. He explains about focal lengths of lenses, how much they can cover, and that the photos in evidence could not have been taken in Borden's small studio, but only in a larger place. The photos were planted in Borden's camera. James Goodwin is called and he produces, as architect of the Dormain Apartments, plans of the building. In summarizing, Mason points out that the photos in evidence show Dawn without bruises, so she could not have had those photos take after the accident. Further, Frank Ferney was dating Dawn while she was at the hardware store, and the one who stole the gun was a man, for the gun is not the type a woman would keep in her purse. The plans of the Dormain Apartments show a fire escape. It was simple for Ferney to slip out, commit murder, and return in time to be aroused by Loretta. It was all a frame-up by Ferney and Harper, proven by the photos. Erwood looks at the photos, dismisses the case.
Sixteen.	Perry, Paul, Della, George and Dawn are, of course, in Mason's private office. Mason surmises that Borden had caught Ferney in either theft or embezzlement. So the accomplices had worked out a plan whereby Dawn would be brought to the Borden studio about nine, then she would disappear and give Ferney his alibi. But things didn't work out, so after Ansley left and Borden phoned the inspectors, Ferney lured Borden to the studio and killed him, then worked to frame Ansley, then Dawn. Drake gets a call; Ferney has confessed. The D A has found a witness who say a man go down the fire escape at the Dormain Apartments. Dawn thinks she got out of trouble by the skin of her eyeteeth, but Della thinks, "Not your eyeteeth."

Mervin Selkirk	Taxicab driver	Cretonic Apartmentts manager	San Sebastian caretaker
Norda Allison	Jonathan Gales	Miss M Adrian	Deputy coroner Harry Nelson
Robert Selkirk	Mrs Jonathan Gales	Another taxi driver	Photographer
Nathan Benedict	Middle-aged baby sitter [Hannah Bass]	Elevator operator	Autopsy surgeon
Two friends of Selkirk	Assistant janitor	Drake's day operator	Alexander Redfield
Waiters	Lieutenant Tragg	Two authoritative men	Sergeant Holcomb
Police who investigated	Patrol car officer	Porter at airport	Fingerprint man
Surgeon	Fred	Drake's camp operative	Frances Delano
Norda's first lawyer	Drake's night operator	Horace Selkirk's caretaker	Court bailiff
Postal authorities	Hamilton Burger	Another taxi driver	Drake's woman operative
Lorraine Selkirk Jennings	Arturas Francisco "Nick" Fallon	Hotel clerk	Her son
Barton Jennings	Alice Colton and baby	Hotel bellboy	Millicent Bailey
Perry Mason	Nite-Out Agency woman	Hotel operator	Her boy friend
Della Street	Western Union delivery boy	Hotel elevator operator	Rover, the Great Dane
Paul Drake	Smithy	Judge Homer F Kent	Veterinarian Dr Canfield
Horace Livermore Selkirk	Grace Hallum	Courtroom people	Jennings' secretary
Inspector Hardley Chester		Manley Marshall

If Dr Lester Adelson were not so dedicated to legal medicine, the fact that he has worked under other leading persons in the field but not himself been a director of a program would have allowed Erle Stanley Gardner to overlook his contributions to forensic medicine. Dr Adelson favors neither prosecution nor defense, just truth. Because of this, Gardner in his Foreword warns jury membersof listening to the medical witness who choses sides, and dedicates the novel to Lester Adelson, M D.

For several recent novels various characters have quickly recognized the famous Perry Mason, even followed his cases in the newspapers. Could it be that Mason has become famous since the TV shows came on the air, and Gardner has picked up on this? The novel fame seems to come after the first season, 1957-58.

Here is one of the longest preliminary hearings in the courtroom antics of Perry Mason, twenty-four pages in the DBC edition, which is roughly thirty for Morrow.

One.	Mervin Selkirk excuses himself before Norda Allison, then slaps his seven-year-old son Robert hard. Norda finally realizes he has "a sadistic streak, an inherent selfishness." She decides to leave, but he tells her that he always gets what he wants, and he wants her, and he knows how to discipline his son. She writes Mervin a letter breaking their engagement. Three nights later she had dinner with Nathan Benedict. Then Mervin called her. She went to dinner with Nate, and there was an incident between him and Mervin at the restaurant. Mervin broke Nathan's jaw, and was restrained by two of his friends. Waiters swarmed around them. Brass knuckles were never found by the police who investigated, tho Nate's surgeon was certain the broken jaw was caused by same. Selkirk got off. Later Norda got letters with newspaper clippings about women killed by jealous lovers. She went to a lawyer, and to postal authorities. Then she consulted Lorraine Selkirk Jennings, Mervin's first wife. They thought they could trace the printing on the envelopes to a printing press brought for Robert at Christmas, but it turned out to not be the one used by Mervin. Lorraine then calls Norda and says that is just like Mervin in his diabolically clever way. They became friends. The police would not provide her "protection." Then Lorraine suggests that Norda join them in Los Angeles.
Two.	Lorraine and her husband Barton meet Norda at the Los Angeles Airport. Norda learns that she is expected to testify about Mervin's slapping Robert. She is hesitant, not wanting to get mixed up with Mervin. Robert is sleeping in a tent in the back yard, guarded by a dog. Tho Norda is close to Robert, the Jennings are sending him to a camp the next day, and do not want her to wake him up.
Three.	Perry Mason joins Della Street to catch up on some work Saturday morning. They are interrupted by a call from Paul Drake who says he has a young woman in his office who is almost hysterical to see the lawyer. Norda Allison tells Perry and Della that she was engaged to the son of Horace Livermore Selkirk. She explains how she is fond of Robert, how she came to Los Angeles and spent the night at the Jennings' house. She had to take a second pill to get to sleep, then thought she heard a shot in the night. Robert and his dog had gone off to camp. She found a note in an envelope Robert had found in the basement, and it said he and Rover were off to camp and he had a gun, and wanted to see her. So she went into the basement and found the printing press which had been used to address the envelopes with all the newspaper clippings in them. She figures Lorraine is behind this, trying to get her to help her get full custody of Robert. She did find an empty .22 cartridge on the grass. She gives Mason two envelopes with her typed address. They contain newspaper clippings. Norda has taken a room at the Millbrae Hotel. Mason says she should strike first, by going to the Jennings' and finding the press.
Four.	The trio is met by Lorraine Jennings. Mason introduces himself and Della, and Barton comes, slowly, due to arthritis. Mason suggests the Jennings consider getting an attorney. Norda tries to say why she's bothered, but Mason tells the story. They go into the basement and find no printing press. Norda mentions the two envelopes she found. Charges and counter-charges lead to the two parties agreeing to forget each other's accusations. Lorraine considers it "another unfortunate experience in misjudging human nature."
Five.	Inspector Hardley Chester listens to Norda Allison, then asks Mason what he should do. ". . . your duty" answers the lawyer. Chester has no evidence, but Norda remembers she wiped the wet printing ink off on a tissue, and produces it from her purse. He leaves to go to work. Mason rings Paul Drake, who suggests he'll just do his detective act and get the neighbors to spill their hearts out with gossip. Mason tells Drake to put tails on the Jennings, and sends Norda back to the Millbrae.
Six.	At three-thirty in the afternoon Mason gets an insistent demand from Drake that he join him at the Gales' house. Mason and Street take a taxi, and the driver is handsomely tipped. Drake has to keep the elderly couple on the subject. They tell of Robert's having a real .22 caliber gun when baby sat by a middle-aged woman. They heard a gun shot in the night, and Robert was taken off to camp about four in the morning. Then Barton Jennings was caught washing blood off the lawn and sidewalk. The current baby sitter has been there about six weeks. Lieutenant Tragg bursts in, announces that Mervin Selkirk has been found dead at the San Sebastian Country Club, shot with a .22 caliber Colt. Tragg suggests Mason, Street and Drake leave. Drake is told to get to the country club, find the boy and the baby sitter.
Seven.	Back at his office the assistant janitor tells Mason someone is waiting for him. It is Nathan Benedict. He says he came to protect Norda. He arrived the previous eve, drove to the Jennings just to watch, and was chased away by a patrol car officer in the morning. He carries a .38 Colt, and has a .22 back in San Francisco which he couldn't find when he came to L A. Lt Tragg arrives, an Mason introduces Benedict, whom the lieutenant is looking for. After a few questions, Tragg says he's taking Benedict with him, though he and the D A "might not believe all his answers." Mason suggests to Della that they go out for dinner and dancing.
Eight.	Fred, the manager of the restaurant that Perry and Della have come to for dinner, asks Mason for permission to bring the banker to whom he owes twenty thousand dollars to the table. Mason grants this personal favor. Horace Livermore Selkirk is thoroughly disagreeable, telling Mason that he intends to avenge his son's death. He adores his grandson Robert, and doesn't want Lorraine Jennings to have sole custody. Mason, who suggests he, if the waiters won't, will throw him out of the restaurant, takes interest in the Robert situation. Selkirk wants Mason to convict Lorraine of murder. He says Robert did not go on any camping trip, but has been spirited away. Mason worries Selkirk may "ruin a might good case . . . Or save it."
Nine.	Mason calls Drake who says he must come up to the office. The night switchboard operator sends him in with Della. Drake has found the name of the baby sitter; Hannah Bass of the Nite-Out Agency. He's learned that someone ran a rattail file up and down the barrel of the murder weapon. Hamilton Burger is 'biting his fingernails back to the knuckles." The gun was found under Norda's pillow, but it was bought by Jennings for game hunting. They've traced the brass knuckles to Arturas Francisco "Nick" Fallon. Benedict was set up by Selkirk. Mason suggests he wants to borrow a baby. Della takes him to Alice Colton, who loans hers. A Nite-Out Agency woman arranges for Hannah Bass to come to Mason and Della, playing husband and wife. They play out an "aging mother" sick a long way away who has to be visited when Hannah arrives. Mason pries out the issue of the boy with a real gun. A Western Union boy delivers the message that mother has passed away. Hannah recognizes Mason. He wants to know what really happened, and Lt "Tragg is very thorough, very shrewd, very fair and very determined." She now admits it was a childish whim. She found the gun in a drawer. She let Robert handle it with the shells removed. After that, he had a hold on her. Later, when he had the gun at night, she found he had a shell for it. Could he, finding he was alone, have gone to the room and taken the gun. She admits it is possible. The interview is over.
Ten.	Ten Sunday morning and Paul calls Perry. Apparently Drake's operative thinks something strange has happened when he tailed Jennings, so Mason goes to talk to the man known as Smithy. The agent tells Mason how Jennings tried to shake his tail, then how he followed him to the Cretonic apartments. Jennings had a suitcase with him. So they go to the apartment and by having Mason stand in various positions, Smithy suggests which of many buttons to try, that of Grace Hallum, but she is not in. They call on the manager and, when she discovers one of the men is a detective, she clamps up, but Mason has learned that Jennings left with a boy. They check adjacent apartments and find M Adrian, who is quite friendly and recognizes Mason. She knows about Grace Hallum, who is from the Nite-Out Agency, and since the apartment walls are thin, has heard what is going on in her apartment. She heard the boy Robert say he fired the pistol and Jennings telling him it was only a dream. Jennings told the boy he was going on a long trip with Hannah. Mason warns her she may have to get on the witness stand, and she almost screams in dismay. Mason flatters her with "You are over thirty, aren't you." She becomes coy, and Mason suggests she start planning what she'll wear, and don't tell anyone.
Eleven.	Mason phones Drake to rush men to the airport. The woman and boy might be traced by a taxi driver who took them there. At his office building, the elevator operator tells Mason that Della has come in. She gets him to update her, and she is upset that the boy may have killed his father. She sides with the boy, over protecting Norda. The two go to Drake's, Mason waving to the day operator on the way in. Drake has traced the taxi, and the driver heard Hallum talking about Mexico City all the way to American Airlines. But they never left. Two authoritative men picked them up, or so a porter says. The camp operative says neither boy nor dog went to camp. The printing press has been found concealed in brush two hundred yards from the place Selkirk was found, with Norda's fingerprint. Selkirk has a room at the San Sebastian Country Club. Mason sets off to see Horace Livermore Selkirk, to get him to file habeas corpus for his grandson.
Twelve.	A caretaker greets Mason and Street at a gate and, after contacting Horace Selkirk, admits the couple. Mason notes that he is being electronically tailed. Selkirk provides mint juleps. Mason explains that he knows "Robert fired a Colt .22 Woodsman in the general direction of a prowler." He suggests police have picked up the child and baby sitter. Mason suggests he force the police's hand. He goes to phone his legal advisers. Mason fakes dozing off. Selkirk returns, offers them a swim, sends them on their way. Mason drives to a small hotel, goes right thru the cocktail bar to a taxi stand and head back to Selkirks. As they near the gates, a taxi passes them with a woman and child. Mason has his cab follow them. He was certain that the boy was there because there was a toy boat in the swimming pool on the way in, but it was gone on the way out. The woman and boy get out at a small hotel (the Anandale). Mason asks the clerk about a guest, and the clerk suggests he phone even as he calls a bellboy to take Mrs Hallum to 619.. The operator says she doesn't have the named guest, but Mason goes to Della saying they are going to see their good friend. The have the elevator operator take them to the seventh floor, then walk down to six, and go to 619. Grace Hallum, when confronted, breaks down and admits to being instructed by Jennings, then intercepted by Horace Selkirk. She's not certain but someone outside the tent fired the gun. Horace Selkirk had them fill out postcards which he'd have sent to Mexico for mailing back to the Jennings. Mason explains that she is guilty of kidnapping. He offers to help her get to Mexico City, which would be following the mother's orders as relayed by her husband.
Thirteen.	Back at the Anandale Hotel, Mason points out to Della the two shadows, "The man and the woman in the corner . . . the man's not as interested in her as he should be . . ." Mason has Della phone Drake to get a woman operative whose description fits Grace Hallum, "and a seven-year-old boy, well-dressed, quiet and dark" to go to the hotel and go straight to 619, never sign a name but pay in cash. Drake of course thinks he's violating law, but Mason tells Della he is wrong.
Fourteen.	Judge Homer F Kent presides at the preliminary hearing in a courtroom filled with people. Trial deputy Manley Marshall calls the San Sebastian Country Club caretaker to testify to noticing the car several times before looking inside and seeing blood, then calling the police. Mason asks if the windows were closed. Yes. Marshall calls the deputy coroner, a photographer, the autopsy surgeon who gave the bullet to Alexander Redfield. Mason takes him to task on how long Mervin Selkirk lived after being shot, stretches the time to twenty minutes, during part of which the decedent could have been driving his car. Sgt Holcomb is triumphant about having found the eighty-five pound printing press, which bears a fingerprint of the defendant, which would have been obliterated had the press been used after the print was put there. Holcomb also found an empty .22 caliber cartridge case about twenty feet from the steering wheel of Mervin Selkirk's car. Could it have been there two days, even ten days? Holcomb supposes so. The press was in deep brush, sitting straight up. It is probable it was put there at night. Holcomb suggests the defendant could have held a flashlight in her teeth. Wouldn't "she" have tripped in the heavy brush? What of those who accompanied him in his discovery. "Lieutenant Tragg caught his foot and fell flat . . . The fingerprint man almost fell." Neither were carrying anything. Why would the defendant conceal the press so near the scene of the crime? "You'd better ask her" is the officer's reply. Assuming the murder took place where the car was parked, the murderer must have made his escape by car. Did the sergeant check for tire tracks of another auto? "We don't overlook the obvious." "Then how did it happen that you overlooked the obvious fact that if a person had wanted to conceal the printing press, the murderer would have taken it away in the escape car rather than leave it in the brush within a hundred yards of the decedent's body where it was certain to be discovered?" Mason has made his point despite a sustaining of Marshall's objection. Lt Tragg testifies to finding a .22 caliber Colt automatic known as a Colt Woodsman under a pillow. No fingerprints, which is common with this make of gun, but the defendant's fingerprints were all over the room. Photographs show the exact location of the gun when found. It had been unloaded and there was no shell in the firing chamber. In the room a partially filled box of .22 shells was found. Mason cross-examines Tragg about matters at the country club. Did he fall? Yes. While carrying the press out of the brush? No, it was daylight. The press would not have been discovered except "in the sort of examination which is usually made in a homicide case." "In other words, you don't join with Sergeant Holcomb in considering that his discovery of the printing press represented an epochal achievement in he chronicles of crime detection?" Ripples of laughter bring an objection from Marshall. Alexander Redfield, firearms and ballistics expert who has been cross-examined by Mason many times is called. He says he can't say the murder bullet was fired from the supposed murder weapon, because of cattail file scraping of the gun barrel. Mason posits a possibility of the likelihood of the defendant killing the decedent at the country club, then taking the gun back to the Jennings house, filing the barrel, and leaving the gun where it could be found without any difficulty? Redfield admits he cannot know the sequence of events. He can say that the empty casing was fired in the gun because of the firing pin indentation. Mason offers him another casing and asks that he test it to see if it was also fired from the same gun. Judge Kent upholds Mason's right to ask this question. Marshall suggests that the defendant killed the decedent, filed the barrel, put the gun under the pillow. She found the gun first in the hall, and now would say she picked it up and took it to her room from there. Judge Kent thinks this far-fetched, but will hold an open mind. United Airlines stewardess Frances Delano shows a stub of a ticket for N Allison which has a bloodstain on it. Deputy coroner Harry Nelson testifies to finding the ticket on Mervin Selkirk. The bailiff whispers to the judge who calls a conference in his chambers. Mason holds a quick discussion with Norda, who says she's certain she gave the stub to Lorraine who picked up her suitcase.
Fifteen.	In chambers, Judge Kent, Mason, Marshall, Burger, and Horace Livermore Selkirk get together. Selkirk reminds everyone that Robert is his ultimate and only heir. His mother, Lorraine, would likely gain much from Robert's inheritance. He announces that he and Mason know that Robert killed his father, and he doesn't want his grandson have an irreparable stigma placed on him. He states the Lorraine and Barton Jennings effectively trained Robert to shoot, then told Mervin Selkirk to go to the tent and surprise his son. The expected happened, and Robert shot his father. Mervin drove to the country club expecting to see a doctor he knew would be playing poker, but fell unconscious before he could get out of the car. Horace expects Mason to destroy Barton Jennings and leave Robert with a permanent stigma. Judge Kent starts asking questions, particularly of Mason, but also Burger who insists only he knows all the facts and he thinks the courtroom is the place to try the case. Burger thinks the introduced weapon is the murder weapon, but Mason is not so sure. Though it is irregular, Judge Kent decides to talk with the boy privately. Horace Selkirk makes a phone call instructing his shadows to go next door and get the woman and boy down to the courthouse within fifteen minutes. The judge adjourns for twenty-five minutes.
Sixteen.	Twenty-five minutes later everyone is reassembled and Judge Kent asks Selkirk if he wishes to go ahead. The bailiff is sent to bring in the woman and boy. When they enter, Selkirk shouts "Those aren't the ones!" Of course, they are Drake's operatives, as the woman admits, and the boy is her son. Burger is amused. The woman explains how drake instructed her to go to rooms 619 and 621 of the Anandale Hotel. Selkirk is livid. Burger agrees to support a complaint by Selkirk of kidnaping against Mason. Bowing to Judge Kent, Mason states that he's "sorry these matters had to interfere with [his] lunch hour."
Seventeen.	Hamilton Burger has joined Manley Marshall and takes over the prosecution. He calls Millicent Bailey, divorced, but dating. She and her boy friend were in the San Sebastian Country Club parking lot when about one-thirty in the morning. They had turned their car around for quick getaway, if needed. There was a big car in the lot. About three an Oldsmobile, license JYJ 113 came speeding into the lot, stopped, and a woman got out, went to the big car, took something metallic out of her purse. That was when they left, fast. She saw the woman's face plainly. Burger has her go over to Norda and dramatically identify her by putting her hand on her. Mason asks about her position, having to look across her boyfriend to see Norda. She says he was crouched on the floor in the back, since he was married and didn't want to be seen. She was driving. Mason asks her if her identification wasn't carefully rehearsed. Not with the deputy district attorney, Manley Marshall, it turns out, but by Hamilton Burger! Barton Jennings is next, and he tells the story of picking Norda Allison up at the airport and she and Mason later coming to the house claiming she had seen a printing press in the storeroom. He identifies the gun. When Mason asks about the boy Robert, Burger objects. Mason probes bit by bit about Robert's disappearance. Eventually he gets Jennings to admit that he took the boy away to friends because Robert claimed to have fired a shot. Jennings says that from what Robert told Lorraine, the boy had a bad dream. He thought "someone had been in the tent, groping along the bed." He explains that he usually left the gun loaded but, when he came to clean and oil it recently, it was unloaded. He learned from Lorraine that Robert had it. When they had to go to the airport, the neighbors were unable to come over, but he had the unloaded gun to give him a sense of security. He next saw it after Robert brought it to his mother after the nightmare. Lorraine put the gun on a hall table, intending to take it to its regular place after Miss Allison had left the room. Mason notes that, had Robert loaded and fired the gun, the fact that the barrel was roughed up would prove Norda innocent. He is positive he didn't rough up the barrel. The next time he saw the gun was when it appeared under Norda's pillow. Jennings now denies a blood trail or hosing off the lawn or walk. Mason asks who the physician is that is treating his right knee, then explains to Judge Kent that he believes Jennings went to the tent, frightened Robert who then shot him in the leg, that he then went to his car dripping blood, bandaged his leg but has been afraid to go to a doctor. Jennings pulls up his trousers leg, and there is no sign of a wound. Mason now questions Jennings about the dog that was protecting Robert, a Great Dane named Rover. He produces a morning newspaper stained with blood, and says that a precipitin test will show that it is dog blood, and that it was from Rover whom Jennings took to a veterinarian hurriedly in the morning. Jennings is forced to name his vet, Dr Canfield, but Jennings says he doesn't know what was wrong with the dog, he only knows he was bleeding. Mason suggests that if there is a bullet in the dog, it could be used to identify the gun and other bullets fired from it. Now Mason suggests that the dog would have admitted someone he knew, such as Selkirk to kidnap the boy, or Jennings to get the gun. The boy fired and hit the dog. Since a neighbor heard the shot, we know the vet's records will show Jennings took the dog to him before one o'clock. Jennings keeps lying, saying he found the dog at the car, but Mason says the dog would have gone to the home, not the car. Jennings, says Mason, was with the dog when the dog was shot, and took him to the car. The judge bores in on Jennings because of all the contradictions in his testimony. So Mason was right, the boy shot the dog while Jennings was at the tent looking for the gun and the dog bled all the way to the car. When he returned from the vet, he reloaded the gun his wife had left in the hall. Then it is Jennings position that the defendant got up, took the gun and went to the country club and shot Mervin Selkirk But how did she know he was there? And where did he get the shells to reload the gun when they were in Norda's room? How did she load the gun, and so forth, Mason asks, pursuing Jennings' illogical answers. Hamilton Burger admits that Mason's cross-examination has revealed unexpected developments but does not negate the positive identification by Millicent Bailey of the defendant. Mason argues otherwise. Bailey back on the stand admits she was coached in her identification, being shown the defendant with police before she identified her in the shadow box. Mason asks Mrs Jennings to stand up and Judge Kent orders her to come forward. Bailey says it is not her. "Lorraine Jennings turned abruptly and walked so rapidly she was almost running." The witness recognizes her way of walking, says that she is the one she saw. Burger now asks the court for an adjournment until the next morning, and is granted this.
Eighteen.	Mason and Street are joined by Drake who says "Complete confessions. Also, you have a suit against Horace Livermore Selkirk" for filing a false suit. Drake explains. Mervin Selkirk was cold-blooded and highly efficient. When Lorraine married Barton, Mervin went after him, getting him involved in some sure things, then applying pressure. When Lorraine moved for full custody of Robert, Mervin cracked the whip. He had forced Jennings to get the printing press and print the envelopes. It was concealed in Jennings' office until his secretary announced her plan to clean the closet in which it was hidden. Selkirk gave an ultimatum to Jennings; get Lorraine to give up Robert, or he'd expose Jennings and get him sent to prison. That evening, Jennings decided to kill Selkirk, but the only gun he could get was under Robert's pillow in the tent. Robert shot the dog. When Jennings got back from the vet, he confessed to Lorraine. Then he went for a showdown during which he shot Mervin. Bailey showed up after this with her boy friend. Jennings went home, roughed-up the gun. Lorraine, who still had Norda's airplane ticket, went to the car, dipped the ticket in Selkirk's blood, stuck it in Selkirk's coat, thus framing Norda. In the morning, Jennings decided he could make it look as if Selkirk had the printing press in his car, used a service road to plant it. Both Lorraine and Barton have confessed. Norda and Nathan are walking on air after a night of dining and dancing. Mason suggests that no jury is going to be tough on a man for killing someone who was blackmailing him. Manslaughter will be the verdict. Lorraine may get off scot-free. Gertie has a frantic Lorraine Jennings on the phone. She wants Mason to see her at the detention ward. Mason decides that, for Robert's sake, he owes them that much.

Gladys Doyle	Atkins	Harvey Ellington
Mauvis Niles Meade	Mrs Manly	Morrison Findlay
Edgar Carlisle	Ira Kelton	G C Challis
John . . .	Golden Fleece parking attendant	Samuel G Cleveland
A dead man. . .	Deferential waiter at Golden Fleece	Dorothy Selma
Della Street	Drake's man at Summit Inn	Selkirk's deferential waiter
Perry Mason	Dale Robbins	Jim Selkirk
Lieutenant Tragg	Messenger	Mrs Kelton
Gertie	Taxi driver	. . . Richard GIlman
Mauvis's apartment manager	Mauvis's apartment night clerk	Dartley B Irwin
Mauvis's apartment doorman	Mauvis's apartment elevator operator	Hamilton Burger
Mauvis's apartment garage man	Gregory Alson Dunkirk	Court bailiff
Paul Drake	Dukes Lawton	Court reporter
. . .Joseph Hanover Manley	Judge Arvis Bagby	Court clerk
Drake's man (Kelton) at Pine Glen		Wendell Parnell Jarvis

Joseph A Jachimczyk, M D, Forensic Pathologist in the Office of the Medical Examiner of Harris County in Taxas (Houston area), is the subject of Erle Stanley Gardner's Foreword and dedication. Dr Jachimczyk prevents many deaths by solving crimes, many of which are the end of a series of murders that went undetected until he came on the scene not only with medical expertise, but with legal knowledge from having earned a Bachelor of Law degree.

It has always been interesting what arcane words, but current standards, Erle Stanley Gardner has his characters use. Here "swell" returns, not in Mason's mouth, but another person.

Paul Drake, on Mason's expense account and at a restaurant with the attorney rather than in h is office munching soggy hamburgers, orders a double Manhattan, sweet, "jumbo shrimp cocktail, consomme, a salad with anchovies across the top, a New York cut, medium rare, lyonnaise potatoes, the best red win they have in the house, and a side dish of creamed onions and some hot apple pie alamode." Of course, he's called away before he can eat it.

Then it was socially correct to smoke, tho it is not so now. Mason is still smoking in his novels, tho not in the television series

Is this the longest Perry Mason courtroom scene to date? Thirty-eight pages in the DBC issue (I have little choice but to obtain an original Morrow edition) and check its length, which should be about fifty pages). Chapter twelve, of sixteen.)

One.	Gladys Doyle, secretary to novelist Mauvis Niles Meade, had been working for about a month when her boss called her in, gave her three hundred dollar bills and told her to go in her stead to the Summit Inn for a weekend with Edgar Carlisle, publicity agent for the American Film Producers Studios. Mauvis gives specific instructions to Gladys to not leave the Summit Inn before six p m Sunday, and to avoid heavy traffic at that time, to take a short cut which requires two right turns at forks in the narrow mountain road.
Two.	The skiing weather made for a perfect weekend with Edgar, who accepted the distance at which Gladys decided he should be kept. On Sunday it started snowing, and the page of directions she had, having been torn out and replaced with notes she took from Mauvis's map, had her take the second fork left instead of right. She got stuck in mud during heavy rain not far from a light which brought her to a cabin and John. He makes no passes, actually indicates she is something of a bother. She showers, takes a blanket for cover as her clothes dry, and is ushered to her bedroom.
Three.	Then she realizes that John might have watched her nude through uncurtained windows. During the night she thinks she hears a car. She wakens at seven-thirty, finds that John has gone, goes into his bedroom and finds a man, dead.
Four.	Della Street tells Perry Mason that a Gladys Doyle, secretary to the author of the sensational novel Chop the Man Down, wants to see him. She tells Mason her story, including that when she fled the cabin she found her car turned around on the narrow road, above the ditch into which she'd originally got stuck, ready to go. She got back to Mauvis's apartment, and it was a wreck. She gives Mason a map showing where the cabin is located, and Mason phones Lieutenant Tragg with the information. He then arranges to have Della get Gladys new clothes
Five.	Gertie tries to warn Mason as Lt Tragg barges in, says the manager of Mauvis's apartment contacted the police, and the garage man and doorman said she got back after nine Monday morning.
Six.	Mason is greeted by Mauvis, "a chestnut-haired beauty, attired in black silk lounging pajamas." The each smoke their own brand of cigarettes. She is concerned that she let Gladys know about Mason, for now he can't be her lawyer (if need be). She has had her book royalties spread over ten years. She's not certain she'll write more novels. People "love to lecture about morality, but they love to read about immorality." "The first venture is seduction. The second is commercialized mental prostitution - if you get the distinction." Mason thinks this a bit sordid. Mauvis thinks it "a damn good appraisal of the literary market, regardless of literature or life." She hired Gladys because she is provocative! Weren't the directions she gave Gladys intended to have her "blunder into this cabin on the Pine Glen road?" Wrong. Lt Tragg pounds on the door, is admitted, and is surprised that Mason is there. The attorney says he'll share information, but he's not leaving. Mason inserts the fact that Gladys was instructed by Meade to take the left turn that took her to the cabin. Mauvis disagrees. She says she'll get the map to prove her point, goes into her bedroom alone, and is gone too long for Mason's satisfaction. She returns with a map marked as to the directions she spoke to Gladys, with a right turn where Gladys went left. As she is about to date and sign the map, she asks for a pen from Tragg, but Mason notices fresh ink between the middle and fore fingers. Mason barges into her bedroom, finds her writing desk with a fountain pen, the screw cap removed, with ink inside. Tragg stands aside, smiling, as Mason bores in. Gladys's room has not been disturbed. They find her notebook, and the place where a page has been torn out. The torn page is in the wastebasket. Mauvis gets a phone call, comes back looking "as though somebody had socked (her) in the stomach with a wet towel." Tragg then gets a call, and ushers Mason out as he leaves.
Seven.	Perry returns to his office, where Della is waiting with the news that Paul has the identity of the corpse. Drake comes in a rush with the name; Josh Manley or Joseph Hanover Manley who signs his name Jos.H., or Josh. His man (Kelton) searched the cabin, figured the owner used a cord of wood that he purchased, found a man named Atkins who had sold a cord of wood for an endorsed check, so he had taken down the license number of the four-wheel jeep station wagon. The go to the Manley's, find only Mrs Manly at home. She is cleaning, removes rubber gloves, then puts them back on when her fingers are seen as black. She's sure her husband is on business in Arizona. He drives an Oldsmobile. He does business for fast turnover, knowing how he's going to sell what he is buying almost before he buys. Mason has Drake read a description of the man they are seeking, and Paul gives false info, so Mrs Manley describes her husband. When they leave Paul is sure the dead man is her husband.
Eight.	The three go to the Pin Glen camp site to see Kelton. They squeeze into his jeep and drive up to the cabin, and climb in through a window. About the only thing Kelton can indicate is strange is a new unused tea kettle, stainless steel with copper bottom, that the police have taken with them. Then Mason crawls under the cabin, finds a coffee can in side of which is a woman's "scarf with the traditional three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." Tucked inside that is a box of .22 long-rifle shells. Seven are missing. Kelton notes they are the same as used in the murder, six in the magazine, one that had been fired and ejected. Mason rolls the scarf around the box, puts it in his pocket, tells the others to mention this to no one, he'll take the responsibility.
Nine.	Mason directs the group to the Golden Fleece restaurant where a parking attendant takes his car and a deferential waiter greets them obsequiously. As he is on Mason's expense account, Paul orders a double Manhattan, sweet, jumbo shrimp cocktail, consomme, a salad with anchovies across the top, a New York cut, medium rare, lyonnaise potatoes, the best red win they have in the house, and a side dish of creamed onions and some hot apple pie alamode. But first, Mason has him call his office. He comes back downcast. Edgar Carlisle is not with the American Film Producers Studios. Drake's Summit Inn man has found the apartment address of Carlisle from a gasoline credit card receipt. They go to the apartment, get no answer on the bell, so try other bells, get in. A "beautiful blonde, attired in a tight-fitting suit" opens the door and asks if they rang the bell. Mason says it was a mistake, and moves on, much to her distress, to Carlisle's room. They hear typing, which Mason's knock interrupts. Carlisle is angry at the interruption. Mason goes over to the typewriter,and Carlisle tells him it will cost twenty-five cents to read the article in Pacific Coast Personalities. He is doing an article on Mauvis Niles Meade or, as it turns out, on Gladys Doyle, secretary to Meade. Carlisle recognizes Mason, says he hadn't yet got the courage to approach him for an article. He then says that Dale Robbins personally asked for his article, offered a thousand dollars, and sent a messenger with three hundred fifty against expenses. He was careful to say only that he was getting publicity for the American Film Producers Studios, not that he was from them. Mason calls the bluff by phoning Robbins, who says he's heard of Carlisle, but not hired him. Robbins is obviously sincere, is crestfallen. Robbins and Mason think it necessary to find who really phoned Carlisle. As he leaves, Mason suggests Carlisle finish the article, for he "can sell it to a newspaper and then to a magazine later on.
Ten.	As the trio cut into their steaks, Mason begins thinking "Mauvis Meade." The photograph on the dust jacket of her Chop the Man Down shows her on a yacht with a wind-whipped scarf with the figures on it. What if it is the one they found under the cabin. Mason tries to get Drake to take the scarf and box of cartridges but he refuses and Della volunteers. He gets a taxi to Meade's apartment house and Mason gives the driver a ten spot to wait. The night clerk hesitates, but Mason walks purposefully by, has the elevator operator take him straight to the penthouse. Mauvis is expecting someone else. Mason has her pull her book off the shelf. Her "legs are nice" she proudly states. Mason asks about the scarf, and a monkey on it. She admits it; it has "three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." From Japan. He asks to see it, and she can't find it. She says the photo was shot in a studio with a fan blowing her skirt, months ago. When Mason asks if she is alone, a man bursts in, Gregory Alson Dunkirk. He doesn't like Mason cross-examining Mauvis. Then there is a knock at the door and Dukes, Mauvis's bodyguard, joins them. Mason suggests that their line of actions is guaranteed to direct suspicion towards them. Dukes escorts Mason out.
Eleven.	In the visitor's room of the jail Mason tells Gladys Doyle he's trying to force the issue so as to find what the prosecution has against her. They still don't know who the dead man is, nor does Gladys, nor does she respond to the name of Joseph H Manly. Gladys remembers being told to turn right but, when her notes were torn out of her notebook, she used a map which showed left. Mason asks her if there could have been anything in her room that a burglar would want, and she remembers a sealed envelope given her by Mauvis Meade. She doesn't know if it is still in her room. His advice to her is "Talk about anything about the case." Back at his office Della gives him an anonymous letter giving him a map to the cabin made by Mauvis. Drake reports that Gregory Alson Dunkirk is powerful politically, unscrupulous, rich and clever. Mason asks Drake to check the map for fingerprints, says that he could in trial give the map to Gladys, asking her if she recognizes it, before Burger could get it. By then he fingerprints would be all over it, even if they are already there! Later Drake returns with the note that there are no fingerprints on the envelope, which was typed on a recent model Remington with misaligned type.
Twelve.	Judge Arvis Bagby opens the preliminary hearing with Harvey Ellington from the district attorney's office. The judge notes that the court has a back log, and he hopes things can be stipulated to save time. Maps and photos are submitted and Mason agrees to stipulation. Morrison Findlay 's testimony is entered by stipulation, but Mason asks to cross examine, and wonder if the renter of the cabin, G C Challis can be identified. No, but is a woman, who agreed to pay $100 a month for a cabin which he'd gladly rent for $30. Mason asks if he can stay to listen to other women witnesses to see if he recognizes the voice of the woman on the phone. A slip up leads to his admitting he has heard Gladys, Mrs Manly and Mauvis, the latter possibly, but not certainly, the voice. Mrs Manly knows no reason why her husband was at the cabin and not in Tucson. Dr Samuel G Cleveland, the autopsy surgeon, states that death was instantaneous from a .22 caliber bullet. Death was shortly after ingesting a meal, the time of which is unknown, but the contents of which he describes. Mason gets him to state when, for all he knows, the murder was committed; about three Monday morning. Dorothy Selma, a car hop, says Manly, whom she knew as Joe, came in for their special, contents of which match what was in the stomach, about one Monday. She knows it was him for she always writes down the license number and knew the letters. Ellington tells the court that he is going to very specifically limit the area of testimony from Mauvis Meade and asks her only about the instructions she gave Gladys on Friday. Mason, under the rights of cross-examination asks about the whole conversation. Questions about the second map are answered by Ellington as not being part of the conversation, thus irrelevant. Mason then produces his map, asking Mauvis if the writing on it is hers. She is visibly shaken. When Ellington demands to see the document, Mason puts it in his pocket, withdraws his question, so the document is not evidence. When Mason asks if she is the one who rented the cabin, Ellington's objection is sustained. Lt Tragg testifies to a full voluntary statement, tho it had to be dragged out bit by bit, by Gladys as to what happened Sunday night (which the reader already knows). The judge wants to expedite things, have another case in the afternoon, and there is sufficient evidence to bind the defendant over to Superior Court. Mason says he wants to put on a defense, asks for the noon recess. The judge tells him to put on his case, so Mason calls Lt Tragg as his witness. Ellington intersperses objections, but Mason gets the fact that, due to several recent storms, the lieutenant couldn't be certain when car or human tracks had been made, but that the defendant's car had been driven through the mud hole in which she claimed to have gotten stuck, and had turned around and driven back up the hill through the mud hole. The judge now seems set to bind Gladys over for trial. Ellington's objections have brought things to noon, and Mason is granted an extra half hour break but Judge Bagby who now realizes he won't get another case in this day.
Thirteen.	For lunch they go to Selkirk's where they are met by another deferential waiter, then manager Jim Selkirk who gives them a private room with two telephones. Drake notes that the rental letters were typed on Mauvis Meade's Smith-Corona. Agent Kelton is in the D A's office, according to Mrs Kelton. A phone call comes thru for Mason, but the caller, after telling Mason that Tragg knows of fingerprints on a new teakettle in the cabin, hangs up before the call can be traced. Figuring the caller could not know where they were unless he followed them, he gives the description of the man John as described by Gladys to Della and Paul, sends one left, the other right, on the street checking phones, while he crosses the street. Eventually he finds a parking lot, and its attendant shows Mason the car left by the caller. The registration is to Richard Gilman. Mason awaits his return, serves him with a subpoena, tells him he either appears or Mason will make him the murderer.
Fourteen.	At the courtroom, Dartley B Irwin meets with Mason. He is a federal officer, and Gilman is one of his men. They argue over Gilman's appearance, finally agreeing to hear Gilman in judge's chambers with district attorney Hamilton Burger, the court bailiff and court reporter, Judge Bagby, the defendant and Harvey Ellington. In chambers, it is stipulated over Burger's objection that if Mason is not satisfied with the responses of the witness, he can have the hearing moved into court. Gilman greets Gladys in a friendly manner, but says he can't clear her. The court clerk swears Gilman in. His testimony is that he was working on a tax investigation in which characters in Mauvis Meade's book were part. He knew that Meade and Manly met at the cabin, that Manly also had an apartment in the city. He was searching the cabin for evidence when Gladys showed up. This was upsetting. When she was showering, he investigated the surroundings to be certain this wasn't a trap. Then when Gladys went to sleep, he went out, brought her car down to a turning point and took it back up beyond the mud hole. Then he went into town and reported, but was told to say nothing. Burger admits there were other fingerprints in the cabin. Lt Tragg is brought in. There were fingerprints of Gladys, and apparently some unidentified ones that would be Gilman's. None of Mauvis Meade, but some of a woman or child. Burger wants to trump Mason's cards, and the judge allows him to reopen the case. Ira Kelton is brought in. He reports what is already known to Mason about how he found Manly was the dead man, and of going to the cabin with Drake, Street and Mason, and finding the coffee can with scarf and cartridge box in it. Mason asks Tragg if there was any evidence he missed. Was the coffee can empty? Yes. So the scarf and box were planted after the murder. The judge now sees a whole new situation, wants to hear from Mauvis Meade. Mason asks if the federal investigation includes Gregory Alson Dunkirk, and Irwin stops the answer. The judge says he's taking the case back into the courtroom where he wants Mauvis Meade interrogated, but Gilman can wait in his chambers.
Fifteen.	Judge Bagby calls Mauvis Meade, asks about the map Mason showed her. She admits she thinks Mason's map showed a left arrow to the cabin. She tore the page out of Glady's notebook, because she didn't want anyone else finding that information. When asked if she'd been in the cabin, she refuses to answer. Wendell Parnell Jarvis stands up as her attorney, says her refusal had to do not with the murder but with a federal investigation. Mason asks her if she isn't "a badly frightened young woman?" Isn't her bodyguard employed not by her, but by someone else to keep her in line, to keep her from incirminating others? Didn't she write a letter for the government authorities which she gave Gladys for safekeepling. Mauvis asks for the Court's protection, and reveals that Jarvis and Lawton and Dunkirk were all together with Manly. The left money in the new tea kettle which she'd take out. She was friendly with Manly, told him of the letter she'd left with Gladys. Between her and Mason, the rest comes out. Mason explains that the police assumed only one person entered Mauvis's apartment, but another did, to get the scarf with which to implicate Mauvis, and the map showing where the cabin was. Had Mauvis gone to the Summit Inn, she would have met with an accident, but she went into hiding until Gladys returned, then the bodyguard was put on her to prevent her from telling what she knew. Mason suggests it was Mrs Manly who murdered her husband. She jumps to her feet; "You can't frame me!" Mason says it proves she was lying. She dashes through the door of the courtroom. When the Judge questions Tragg as to why he is not folloing her, he replies, "the fingerprint in the cabin proves she was lying but that's all. But her flight is evidence the district attorney can use in the case against her when he's trying her for murder. So if she's foolish enough to resort to flight, I'll give her a good start before I catch her." The judge smiles; "It is always a pleasure to watch a really efficient officer at work."
Sixteen.	The usual trio congregates for Mason's explanation. He says it was too obvious that someone was trying to implicate Mauvis. When they met Mrs Manly, she was wearing rubber gloves, but when she removed them, her finger tips were black, which should not be with gloves. It was from a new typewriter ribbon. She was a "plain, vigorous, executive-type woman" who couldn't compete with the sex appeal of Meade. She followed her husband, discovered his intown apartment, then the cabin, where she saw Meade show up. She returned with the rifle, waited, shot her husband thru the window. Mason thinks Meade will make out all right, and Gladys may renew her association with Richard Gilman. Moral; "when you work out a foolproof method of beating the law, you want to remember that the law isn't always a fool."

George Anclitas	George Spencer Ranger	Alexander Redfield
Ellen Robb	Maurice Halstead	Policewoman
Wilton Winslow "Slim" Marcus	Two Drake bodyguards	Waiter
Helman "Helly" Ellis	Ralston Fenwick	Two newspaper reporters
Della Street	Lt Tragg	Bailiff
Perry Mason	Plain-clothes man	Loring Crowder
Rowena's cop, Miles Overton	Hamilton Burger	A deputy
Sadie Bradford	Donovan Fraser	Sadie Bradford
Jebley Alton	Judge Staunton Keyser	Surf and Sea Motel manager
Nadine Ellis	Captain of a coast guard cutter	Spectators
Gertie	Dr Andover Calvert	Newspaper reporters
Darwin C Gowrie	Sheriff's representative	Photographers
Paul Drake	FBI agent

Erle Stanley Gardner dedicates this novel to Nicholas M Chetta, M D, coroner and ex-officio physician of the parish of Orleans in Louisiana, for his efforts at upgrading all aspect of law enforcement related to medical practice in New Orleans.

How often does Gardner repeat himself? Not often. Yet here, Chapters Four and Five begin "Perry Mason latchkeyed the door of his private office."

Gardner touches the subject of sex and sex appeal very carefully, yet this novel is full of Della's comments about the novel's title lady's pulchritudinous attractions, and how she uses them.

How long ago was marijuana a legal problem? Gardner shows it to be one in 1959 California.

On page 74 of the DBC edition, "let's find out" becomes "let's fine out."

With each successive novel, Gardner has to ratchet-up the stakes, getting Burger close to nailing Mason or getting Mason's client close to the death chamber. Here Burger tries to get Mason as an accessory to murder. Even Della doesn't believe Ellen has told Mason the truth, "She's a millstone around your neck" she tells her boss.

A short chapter list, only fifteen.

This novel gives us the latest dismissal of charges against Perry Mason's client to date, the last chapter, two pages from the conclusion.

One.	George Anclitas is looking Ellen Robb over. He tells her to wear long black stockings and a short skirt. He tells Slim Marcus tonight is the night they take him, Helman Ellis. They give Ellen the verbal cues she is to use to signal what he has in his poker hand. Ellen tells them she's not going to do it. Anclitas backs down, sends her out. Then he tells Slim she's done, he'll frame her and kick her out and tell her to get out of the state or he'll prosecute.
Two.	Della Street in the doorway of Mason's office, with an amused smile tilting the corners of her mouth. "You have always said that you didn't like cases involving figures." He responds, "I want cases involving drama, cases where there's a chance to study human emotions." She says they have a case waiting that involves a fancy figure. Mason catches on. ". . .an animate figure . . . it undulates?" "It sways." Mason checks his pulse. 128. Della says it will be 180 in five seconds, ushers Ellen Robb in, takes her coat, reveals the figure in a tight-fitting sweater and skirt six inches above the knees. She won a bathing beauty contest and trip to Hollywood and screen test. She's not certain there was film in the camera. She's been in Rowena, a one cop town whose cop makes one arrest east, one west, each pass through town. Since she's worked a number of jobs, but was fired by George Anclitas the previous night for a hundred twenty-five dollar cash shortage which she thinks Anclitas created by his quick hands. Sadie Bradford overheard Anclitas's comments. Anclitas said he'd clean out her locker and send her things to Phoenix. He'd have witnesses, and they'd find a wad of bills in her locker. This was the first time she was given the job at the register. She explains how most of the knocking down occurs at the bar, how the bartender rings up several drinks at a time in such a way the total comes out exactly two dollars less than he's been paid. She explains how she could cheat at the main register. She sings a bit of a popular tune for Mason. Della dials Anclitas and Mason then tells the man that he's coming out to see him and to pick up Ellen's things and her back pay. Anclitas says he'll have a reception committee waiting, and Ellen will spend sixty days in jail. Mason says he'd better draw ten thousand dollars out of the bank in case Miss Robb is willing to settle for cash rather than go to court over his defamation of character, slanderous remarks and false accusation.
Three.	As they enter The Big Barn in Rowena , they are greeted by Chief Miles Overton, then George Anclitas. Mason informs them that he and Miss Robb are there to pick up her things. The chief says he'll do the searching. Mason informs him the locker is her property. Anclitas asserts he has no master key. Mason asks how, then, could he get her things and send them to Arizona? Mason says any search without a warrant is illegal, and he wants an apology from Mr Anclitas, tho that will not do for compensation. Jebley Alton, Rowena city attorney, arrives and cautions Anclitas, then the Chief, as to what not to say. They go to the locker and Ellen opens it, finds money in her suitcase. Mason prevents the chief from taking it. $568. Mason says they'll give George credit against back wages and claims, including defamation of character. "Defamation of character, indeed! That's a laugh" came an angry exclamation. It is Mrs (Nadine) Ellis, and she wants back the $6000 her husband lost the previous night. Anclitas suggests that, even if the game were crooked, her husband could claim nothing. Mason gives her the complete citation of a case in which a woman got back her husband's gambling losses, because they were community property and he had no right to use the money without her permission. He tells Mrs Ellis to get her own attorney. Perhaps he'd like "to appear before one of the local women's clubs and give a talk on California law and the management of community property." Alton wants to look up the law. Mrs Ellis is "in charge of the entertainment program for the next three months at the Rowena Women's Club." Mason suggests Ellen won't have any more trouble, he won't charge her a fee because he is "primarily interested in the better administration of justice." She should take any fair deal that is offered her, but not accept even the slightest indignity. When he and Della get in his car, the secretary seems a bit upset that Mason gave away a fee and a whole day's work. She asks if it had been a man, would he have taken the case. "Hell, no" he admits.
Four.	Mason finds Della sorting his mail. He starts, reluctantly, on the urgent mail, telling Della he won't go to San Francisco to work with another attorney. Gertie rings the office; Ellen Robb is there. Della warns him that she will show herself off by leaning forward with her low-cut top. Mason asks Della to cough, so he can keep his mind on the work, if Ellen does this. Ellen's first statement is that George has been very polite and has raised her wages to twenty-five dollars a week. She's worried about the Ellis situation. Should she go to Mrs Ellis and explain that Helly is not really interested in leaving his wife and that making the home a pleasant place is the way to keep a husband. A call comes thru from Darwin C Gowrie, attorney for Mrs Ellis. He asks Mason to join him at the women's club, and Mason declines. Mason says he has a file full of odd legal decisions. For instance, if a person mortally wounds another, but before the other dies a second person shoots him and instantly kills him, only the latter one is guilty of murder. Gowrie says he doesn't think Ellen was frank in her visit with him and Mason says he was thinking his client should have a talk with Mrs Ellis. Gowrie is delighted. He tells Ellen so. She pays Mason fifty dollars. When Della returns from ushering Ellen out, she says the fee should have been two hundred fifty. Della has noticed that Ellen is a good shorthand stenographer. Mason then wonders if Gowrie calling while Ellen was in the office was pure coincidence. Della says not.
Five.	This time Mason finds Paul Drake awaiting his arrival. After disposing of non-essentials, he brings up Rowena and dirty-fighter Anclitas. He notes how some time past Anclitas framed a girl regarding marijuana. As he goes back to the urgent file, Ellen shows up in the outer office, and Mason tells Della to brush her off. Della returns, now on the side of Ellen. The singing skirt has a black eye. She says Anclitas was difficult all evening and, when she could stand it no more, she slapped him, and he slugged her. She left with her things, but later found a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver planted in her bag. She tried to see Mrs Ellis, even going to their yacht, but didn't find her. Mason asks about her stenographic abilities. She admits to having been around, and having been married t a darned good husband whom she took for granted and when she played the jealous wife, he left. Mason looks at the gun, finds a way to get a similar gun out of those he's collected from clients, this one George Spencer Ranger, and give that to Robb who does not know of the switch. Since she doesn't have a permit, he suggests she put the gun back in the bag where she found it. He tells her to go to and stay in her motel. Mason tells Della to take the gun to Drake to trace the registration and have Maurice Halstead fire test bullets. Then when Anclitas files a suit against Ellen, he'll jerk the rug out from under him.
Six.	Mason calls Gowrie, learns that he cannot find Mrs Ellis and has postponed his speech to the women's club. Drake reports that the tested gun was one of four purchased by W W Marcus, Anclitas's silent partner. Mason scratches the barrel of the gun so that any bullets fired from it in the future will be distinguishable from those test fired. Helman Ellis arrives and is frantic that his wife has gone crazy and wants to kill Ellen. He offers to pay for bodyguards, her legal expenses and so forth, but with each offer Mason points out how bad that would look if his wife tried to divorce him. He says he can afford to lose the money, and doesn't want to be considered a welsher. The problem is confounded by the fact that when Ellen went aboard his yacht, she dropped a handkerchief with her embroidered name on it, and Nadine found it. Nadine has the gun given him by Anclitas. He wants Mason to sue for him regarding a crooked game, but again Mason cannot help. He says Anclitas bought Gowrie off. After Ellis leaves, Mason gets to Drake and asks him to put bodyguards on Ellen, but not let her know. Then Mason sends Della to get a twelve inch cylinder of ice such as those ice cubes are cut from in machines, plus a shoebox of dry ice. When he returns he shows her how to put the cylinder through the trigger guard and hang the gun under a sink or other place, which she is to do in the women's room at The Big Barn.
Seven.	Mason and Street drive out to The Big Barn. Mason gives Della instructions for returning and she enters the building. Mason is too intent on her return, and the police chief and Ralston Fenwick, who tells Mason he's in public relations and had to give up a fine time in Acapulco to return at the behest of a local association involved in gambling. He offers Mason fifteen thousand dollars to study the state laws on gambling for the association over the next year. Mason says he's too busy. When they leave, he gives the all clear signal for Della, who has accomplished her task of placing the gun in the women's room.
Eight.	Afternoon. Paul says that late in the morning a submarine found the Ellis yacht in proscribed waters, hailed it, boarded it, and found Mrs Ellis dead, with two bullets in her chest. She had a gun in her hand and fired once from it. Mason immediately goes to the Surf and Sea Motel and gets Robb to sign the papers for the suit against Anclitas, then asks her if there was anything between her and Helman. She insists no. Lt Tragg arrives with a plain-clothes man, who finds the gun in Ellen's purse. Tragg questions her and she answers several questions until Mason, who tries to warn the lieutenant about the gun not being the murder weapon, cuts her off. Mason tells Robb to get in touch with him when "Lieutenant Tragg tells you that you can leave." "You mean if, not when" counters Tragg. Mason insists "when."
Nine.	Mason is pacing the floor of his office and thinking out loud with Della, worrying about the order in which things happened and what if the gun they returned is the murder weapon. He thinks Hamilton Burger is going to get a jolt when he finds the Robb gun is not the murder weapon. Paul arrives and Perry suggests he pursue the situation as if the gun the police took from Ellen is not the murder weapon. The call comes thru to Drake on the ballistics test; "The fatal bullets that killed Nadine Ellis were fired from the gun that Ellen Robb had in her possession when the police arrested her."
Ten.	Deputy district attorney Donovan Fraser addresses the court, to ward off Mason's "well-known tactics" in the courtroom. Judge Staunton Keyser tells him to put on his case. He calls the captain of the Coast Guard cutter who testifies to taking Dr Andover Calvert, a sheriff's representative and an FBI agent to the Cap's Eyes yacht, where they found the dead body of Nadine Ellis. The yacht was found on the back side of Catalina island, and Mason questions how it could have gotten there, by being set to compass direction and such, since the witness is sure the murder was not aboard after the yacht left its mooring. Dr Calvert testifies that two bullets entered the body, one piercing the heart. Mason asks which one killed Mrs Ellis. Both. A person can't be killed twice. If the bullet fired into the heart, called two, was fired some time after the other, called one, and the decedent were still alive, two would have caused death? But, if some time elapsed before bullet two was fired, bullet one might have already produced death? Mason asks the bullets to be entered in evidence, then asks Calvert to identify which is one, which two, and he only knows they are the bullets he gave Alexander Redfield, with his secret mark on them, a mark he puts on all the bullets he examines. Reluctantly, the autopsy surgeon suggests that it is the one that is somewhat flattened. Alexander Redfield, used to Mason's probing cross-examination, answers questions carefully. He identifies the bullets as being fired from the murder weapon but produces a photo of only one of the bullets. Mason pursues this. The flattened bullet was too damaged for easy comparison tests, so he only did the one bullet for a match to the gun, the assumed that the other, due to its size and weight, was also fired from the same gun. Fraser is angry at Mason's tactics, but Judge Keyser remains, as he has so far, willing to hear Mason's arguments. Mason says that if the untested bullet was fired by Ellen, she is not a murderess, having fired into a dead body. The judge orders a recess until Redfield can test the second bullet. A policewoman takes Ellen Robb in to custody as Mason and Street leave the courtroom.
Eleven.	Drake, Street and Mason go to their usual lunchtime restaurant. Mason is worried. A waiter serves them but there is no cheer in the eating. Drake goes back to work. Mason tells Della he thinks Burger may be laying a trap, otherwise why would he put an inexperienced deputy on the case.
Twelve.	Mason enters the court exactly at the time for court to resume. Two newspaper reporters try to get to Mason as the bailiff pounds his gavel for the judge's entrance. Alexander Redfield enters, accompanied by Hamilton Burger. Redfield says the bullet he has now examined was not fired from the gun entered into evidence. Burger tells the judge that he is going to connect Mason with the crime. The judge warns him this could be contempt if he fails. Burger calls Darwin C Gowrie who relates the phone conversation he had with Mason in which Mason stated that a person firing a bullet into an already dead person cannot be guilty of murder. The Lt Tragg is called and tells of having found on Robb a shorthand note with the same information written on it. Next Loring Crowder, who is engaged in the retail liquor business, states he bought the gun that has been introduced in evidence as Exhibit B, but gave it to George Spencer Ranger. Ranger is called and reluctantly admits he gave the gun to Perry Mason over six months before. Helman Ellis is next. He testifies about his wife coming back from Arizona, her saying she was going to pistol-whip the defendant, she was going to get a fingerprint expert to prove she'd been on the yacht. He let her go ahead, as he knew he'd not been on the yacht with Ellen. The yacht was gone by noon, and he never saw his wife again. He identifies the gun found with her as one given him by Anclitas, who is the next witness. He says Ellen Robb left because he fired her because she was bringing too much notoriety to The Big Barn by having an affair with Helman Ellis. He caught her in an embrace with Ellis, and Mrs Ellis knew about this. He identifies the gun Exhibit E as one he gave Ellis. In his cross, Mason asks if test bullets have been fired from gun E. No. There is one bullet unaccounted for, and the judge thinks efforts should be made to identify it, and instructs that this be done. Mason then gets Anclitas to admit he struck Robb, and is being sued for it. Mason queries him about the gun, how he identified it with only a cursory glance. He says it was one of four on a special order, all alike, which Slim Marcus picked up. He recognizes this one from a nick on the front sight. Mason and Burger, even the judge, get in to a fight over this means of identification. Anclitas is forced to make the identification, and is surprised that there is no such nick, it must have worn off. He explains how the four guns were to be marked for identification and a bet with Slim Marcus as to whether a nail file could cut the gun barrel led to a bet Slim lost. The nick is his only means of identification, yet he is certain this is the gun he gave Ellis because it was found on the yacht. A deputy enters the courtroom and confers with Burger. The district attorney then says a matter of "transcendent importance" has arisen, brought to him by Maurice Halstead and he wants to call Mason to the stand. He states the bullet fired from a gun Halstead tested is the one that fired unidentified bullet two. Burger states that it appears that both guns that fired into the decedent were at one time in the possession of Mason, who "had recently been investigating the law concerning two persons firing fatal shots into a body." He suggests it is one thing to protect the rights of the client, another to become an accessory to murder. The judge admonishes him for the suggestion, suggests he take it to the Grievance Committee of the Bar Association. The judge thinks, however, that the district attorney is within his rights to call Mason. This takes things out of order, says the attorney, he has the right to conclude his cross-examination of Anclitas first, since the D A has stated that the witness came at great difficulty regarding his business. The judge agrees as Burger "yielded the point with poor grace." Mason asks about the gun and suggests that overnight he should check all his guns to see if one has the nick. The judge is not impress by all this, and suggests only that the witness may have made a natural mistake, but it doesn't affect things as he sees it. Mason wants an accounting of all four guns. Burger says this is stalling. The judge reminds him it is his own mistake, and Burger is sheepish about his slip-up. Ellis says where three guns were kept, and the fourth is the one he gave Ellis. When he had a lot of money on him, he often carried one of the guns, sometimes Slim did. And one time a hat check girl, Sadie Bradford, did, but that was stopped. When Anclitas steps down, Burger calls Mason to the stand, but Mason points out that the D A had not specifically concluded his examination of Ellis, having interrupted it to call Anclitas. Burger says he is done with Ellis, but then Mason demands his right to cross-examination. Burger is furious, says he'll stipulate Ellis's testimony, but Mason refuses to so stipulate, then says he'll withdraw all of Ellis's testimony so he can't be called by Mason, because he wants Mason on the stand before he can concoct an alibi. Judge Keyser says it is beyond adjournment time, but he'll call an evening session to expedite matters. Mason objects to this, but the judge stands firm.
Thirteen.	Mason is pacing in his office, drinking coffee, munching donuts. He starts thinking out loud. What if the Crowder gun, which Mason substituted for the Anclitas gun, was fired before the Anclitas gun, which is the reverse of what they've been thinking. Maybe when they placed the Anclitas gun in the powder room, Anclitas found it, went to the yacht, and fired the second bullet in to the body. No, "it would have been a physical impossibility for Anclitas to have taken the gun after we returned it, found the yacht and fired the second bullet. But if that had happened, the marks I made in the barrel with the etching tool would show up. Redfield would have noticed them," states Mason, who then admits his unorthodox tactics backfired. He admits that it looks as if Ellen came to him, told him she'd murdered Nadine, that Mason gave her another gun and told her to go back and shoot Nadine again. But he'll go down fighting, for he won't "betray a client. That's final." Drake interrupts. He says Ellen lied, she and Helman were ga-ga. When she came to Mason with the shiner, she said she'd been to the Surf and Sea Motel and Mason said go back, but she went first to see Ellis who was already there! Now the motel manager has been thinking back and remembers a car arriving before Robb. He got the license number and Drake's bodyguard eventually got that number, which matched Ellis's car. Mason now figures that if Ellen fired a bullet from the gun with which she was arrested, it had to be between the hour when she left his office, nine-forty-five Wednesday, and when she returned to the Surf and Sea. Drake says she was under surveillance from seven in the evening on. But she could have killed Nadine Wednesday morning with the Anclitas gun between six and her arrival at Mason's. Mason is certain of only one thing, he has to stall to keep off the stand.
Fourteen.	Hamilton Burger states they now have all the guns, and he defines them. There is the Ellis gun, Exhibit E, which was given to Ellis by Anclitas. They have the revolver found in the possession of the defendant. One of the guns in the possession of Anclitas fired bullet known as C-1, despite the barrel being defaced, and is the gun given by Mason to Drake and then to Halstead. The judge asks if the gun which fired bullet C- 1 has file marks on the sight. Yes, says Burger, tho he is satisfied this is not the gun given to Ellis, whom he now wants to recall. Burger takes note of spectators and newspaper reporters. Ellis explains that the gun over which the bet was made is not the gun Marcus handed him, but one he took from under a desk. Mason's first question is whether or not Ellis is in love with Ellen. He says no. Mason pursues this over objections by Burger. Did Ellis see the defendant after the altercation at The Big Barn. He eventually admits he did. Further objections. Mason goes direct. Did he arrange with Sadie Bradford t pick up a gun for him. Yes. Now Mason asks him if he didn't kill his wife with that gun, plant it in Ellen's bag, then on Wednesday morning, having discovered the gun she had was not the one he planted, taken surreptitiously the second gun, go back and shoot his wife, then put the gun back in her baggage. Burger is outraged. The judge notes that the question goes to show the bias of the witness and allows it. Ellis says he did not do this. Sadie Bradford stands up, says she's been made an unwitting accomplice and she wants to turn state's evidence. The judge, who wanted to get things over this night, of his own motion continues the case to the next day. Burger demands to examine Mason now, but the judge says that "on sober second thought" he'll be glad that he didn't.
Fifteen.	Hamilton Burger stands to dismiss the case against Ellen Robb. Helman Ellis has signed a confession, admitting he was infatuated with Ellen and was also having an affair with Sadie Bradford! Ellis took one of the guns given him by Anclitas, shot a bullet into the woodwork of the yacht, cocked the gun and put it in his wife's hand, having murdered her. He had Sadie plant the gun. When he heard of the altercation, he went to the Surf and Sea, assured himself the gun was in Ellen's position, told her to say nothing of his visit. He then went to the yacht, set it loose and took it to Catalina Island, from which he flew back to town. He then saw Ellen after she visited Mason, discovered the different gun, took it in his possession until she could get it back in her bag. He took the gun, flew back to Catalina Island (he has a license to fly), went to the boat, fired the second shot, piloted the boat around the island, tied it up, then set it to sail out to sea, got off, untied it and let it go. He flew back to the mainland, not knowing of the proscribed area, thinking the boat would sail well out into the sea and eventually capsize and sink. The judge still wonders about the gun that was placed in the defendant's bag got back to Anclitas. Sadie believes Ellis placed the gun on the floor and she kicked it accidentally under a washbowl. Ellis denies this, but the district attorney cannot conceive of why Ellis would lie except to implicate Mason, who now steps forward and admits to changing guns on Ellen, since she believed the gun she had was planted, and this is legal. How does he explain events subsequent to the planting of the gun? Mason counters that he does not have to account for such events, he's exonerated his client. Burger admits that "the only witness against Perry Mason is now a self-confessed murderer with a vindictive hatred of counsel," he cannot proceed against Mason. Judge Keyser dismisses the case against Ellen Robb. Outside the courtroom, Mason tells Della that Ellen did not have the time to do all that was done, then the yacht had to be moved in two steps, and Catalina Island was the only stopping point. Finally, when a person is trying to fire rapidly, they use the double-action mechanism, but this gun was cocked, so was probably planted. He also knew the Ellis's had only one car, so Mrs Ellis must not have driven to Phoenix and Ellis did not speak to her the following morning (This is unfair to the reader, who has not been given this information until now). The bullet recovered from the body didn't have the etching marks he'd put in the barrel, so it had to be fired before he got the gun. Della admires him for his loyalty to his client. "Mason heaved a sigh. 'Della,' he said, 'whenever I waver in my loyalty to a client, do me a favor. Just close up the office, get some paint remover and erase the words ATTORNEY AT LAW from the door of the reception room.'"