Some Buried Caesar

"Well, this is. Lily Rowan is after my brother Jimmy."

I raised the brows. "And?"

"She mustn't get him. She hasn't got him… yet. I would have supposed Jimmy had too much sense, but apparently that has nothing to do with it. Also I thought he was in love with Nan Osgood; I thought that last winter. A month or so ago Lily Rowan started after him. And even Jimmy… even Jimmy will fall for it! How the devil does she do it? Damn her!"

"I couldn't say. I could ask her."

"This isn't a joke. She'll ruin him."

"I don't regard it as a job. You asked a silly question. And her being up here… you invited her just to help things along a little and have it over with?"

"I invited her because I thought that seeing her like this… out here in the country… might bring him to. But it hasn't."

"He still laps it up." "Yes."

I hunched my shoulders. "Well, granted that I'm a good detective, there doesn't seem to be anything to detect. It seems to be what my employer calls a natural process, and there's no way of stopping it except to send your brother to Australia for a pair of shoestrings or cut her throat."

"I could do that, cut her throat. I could murder her. But maybe there is a way. That's what I was thinking about. She said something about you today while you were upstairs. Something that gave me an idea."

"What did she say?"

"I can't tell you. I couldn't say it."

"Was it… well, personal?"

"Very personal."

"What was it?"

"I tell you I- won't repeat it. But that, and other things, and her asking you to have lunch with her… I believe you could take her away from Jimmy. Provided you don't try. She likes to do the trying, when she gets energy enough. Something about you has attracted her; I knew that when she called you Escamillo."

"Go on."

"That's all. Except… of course… I don't mean to ask a favor of you. There's no reason why you should do me a favor, even as great a one as this. It's a matter of business. When you send me a bill I'll pay it, only if it's very big I might have to pay in installments."

"I see. First I act coy, then I let her ruin me, then I send

you a bill-"

"I tell you this isn't a joke. It's anything but a joke. Will

you do it?"

I screwed up my lips, regarding her. Then I got out a ciga- rette, offered her one which was refused, and lit up.