
him, so his credit didn't stretch far. The thing he preferred to do, and which he did most of the time, was
pursue excitement.
It was inevitable that Mr. Mayfair should be called Monk. And he was. He did not mind.
Monk did some more belly-punching of his victim and said, “Come on, wake up, chump!” Still there
were no results.
Going to the telephone, Monk gave a number and asked, “Ham? . . . Well, what are you waiting on? . . .
Sure I got him. Like a sitting duck. He's here in the hotel room now. Notify Doc, and then come on up. .
. . No, he hasn't talked yet. He thinks he's pretty sick. Okay. Fifteen minutes.”
Monk concluded the conversation, turned, and discovered he had been careless. His victim, Alexander
Trussman, had slid silently off the bed and was slipping out through the door into the hall.
“Here!” Monk yelled. He dived for the door. He had started too late. Mr. Trussman, forcing activity over
his sickness, slid through the door and, taking the key along, got it closed and locked on the outside.
Monk did some roaring. He roared very well, sounding like he looked, a bull ape. The door was too
stout for mere twisting and wrenching, and he drew back with some idea of caving in a panel with his
shoulder. At that point, he remembered there was another room, a connecting door, and the second
room had a door into the hall.
“Dumb cluck!” said Monk with feeling. He meant himself.
He bolted into the adjoining room, knocking over furniture without noticing or caring what he was
knocking over, and plunged out into the hall.
“Oh, oh!” he said, greatly pleased.
Mr. Trussman had collapsed in the hall. He had made about twenty feet, which had taken him almost to
the door with the little light above it that said EXIT in red, and which would have admitted him to the
stairway. “Crockett!” gasped Trussman. “Tell Crockett—”
Monk ran to Mr. Trussman, stood over him and blew vigorously on his fist. He was tempted to see
whether Mr. Trussman would appreciate the feel of the fist. What stayed him was the conclusion which
he drew—a wrong one, but he didn't know it—that Mr. Trussman had fainted.
Monk carried the man back in the room and dumped him on the bed. After that Monk didn't turn his
back and do any telephoning. It was an unnecessary precaution, though, because the man was now
dead. It was three o'clock.
HAM was Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks, and he preferred that no one call him Ham,
including his friends. Everyone called him Ham whenever possible. . . . Ham was a lean, dapper man, an
authority on clothes, and an example always of what to wear for the occasion. He was an eminent
lawyer, often mentioned as one of Harvard's most brilliant alumni, but his attitude toward the practice of
law was much the same as Monk's toward the practice of chemical engineering. Ham preferred
excitement. He had better judgment than Monk with money, however, and was usually broke no more
than once a year. He was also Monk's friend, in an evil-eyed sort of way.
Ham Brooks came into the hotel room dawdling a cane and told Monk, “God, you look awful.”
“I look like I always do,” Monk said, surprised.