Fred Hedley looked at her in surprise. "You mean you're going to join the herd? You're going to become a key-pounding square?"

"I mean that I'm going to fit myself to take the responsibilities of life."

"You would be simply a cog in a business machine," Hedley told her reprovingly. "In no time at all you'd lose track of your friends who are original thinkers. You'd become just another wage slave taking pothooks and slanting lines. You'd be on the outside."

Mason grinned. "Don't disparage secretaries, Mr. Hedley," he said. "They are pearls of great price and I can assure you that good ones are hard to find. These days you have to get them and train them over a long period of time. Miss Street is my right hand. I'd be lost without her."

"Wage slaves," Hedley snapped. "Human dignity is entitled to something more than machine routine."

Mason said, "Dignity means greatness. Look it up sometime."

He turned to Desere Ellis and said, "I don't know why Mr. Dutton suggested you come and see me. I am going to represent Mr. Dutton. I will be glad to talk with you at any time."

Mason placed a subtle emphasis upon the "you."

She nodded.

"But," Mason said, "I am acting as Dutton's attorney and at the moment I am not in a position to disclose anything about our relationship or about his affairs. I would want to have him present at any conversation with you."

"Heavens," she said, "you don't need to keep things confidential as far as anything in connection with the trust is concerned. It's dead open and shut. I've kept books on it; I know how much I had and how much I've spent."

"Were there any new investments?" Mason asked.

"I don't think so. Dad left the property in stocks and bonds. Kerry has had to sell them a little at a time to keep up my allowance, but there have been some dividends, some increases in value. That's part of the bookkeeping I've been doing-just checking up."

"We've gone back over the bonds and stocks," Hedley said, "and figured the dividends, interest payments and selling prices."

"I see," Mason commented noncommittally; and then asked, "When are you going to enroll in this business course, Miss Ellis?"

"Tomorrow," she said.

Mason nodded approvingly and then, by his continued silence, indicated that he had nothing more to offer.

Hedley got to his feet and was promptly joined by Desere. Mrs. Hedley hesitated for a moment and then slowly arose from her chair.

"Thank you for calling," Mason said.

Della Street held open the exit door and they marched out.

When the door had closed, Mason turned to his secretary with a worried look. "I am probably violating all sorts of professional ethics," he said. "I'm afraid I'm getting swept along on the same current which has caused Kerry Dutton to lose his footing."

"Meaning you're falling in love with the girl?" Della Street asked, smiling.

Mason said, "I guess there's always the temptation to play God… Here's a woman who has frittered away her life and, as far as she knows, all of the money that her father left her. She's tied up with some radicals who are writing intellectual poetry, espousing theoretical political views predicated upon limited experience and less knowledge; and she's now just at the point of corning to grips with herself."

"Well," Della Street asked, "what should you do? Tell her the truth?"

Mason said after a moment's thought, "I am not my client's conscience-only his lawyer."

It was the next morning when Della Street handed Mason the folded newspaper as he entered the office.

"What's this?" Mason asked. "The financial page?"

"Right."

"What's the trouble?"

"Read it," she said. "Unless I'm mistaken, there's plenty of trouble."

Mason read the paragraph she indicated.

It was announced last night that Steer Ridge Oil amp; Refining Company had brought in a gusher proving up an entirely new territory in the Crystal Dome area. Market value of the company stock had been steadily declining and according to Jarvis Reader, president of the company, the news of this strike will reverse the downward trend. The new gusher is reported in an entirely new field which had previously been abandoned by one of the major oil companies as nonproductive.

Mason gave a low whistle. "Better get our client, Kerry Dutton, on the phone, Della."

She nodded. "I looked up his number. I felt perhaps you'd want to call him."

She picked up the instrument, said, "Give me an outside line, Gertie." And then her fingers flew over the dial.

She held the phone for several seconds, then her eyebrows raised. She made a little gesture to Mason but she continued holding on for another ten seconds.

At the end of that time, she dropped the telephone back into place.

"No answer?" Mason asked.

"No answer."

Mason said, "Ring up my broker, Della. Tell him I want fifty shares of Steer Ridge Oil and Refining."

Della Street put through the call, transmitted the order, then said, "He wants to talk with you personally, Chief."

Mason nodded. "Put him on."

The lawyer picked up the telephone on his desk and said, "Yes, Steve, what is it?"

"You know something in particular or are you just playing a hunch on that paragraph in the paper this morning?"

"Well, it's a little of both," Mason said. "Why?"

"I don't know about that Steer Ridge stock," the broker said. "It's skyrocketed. Somebody apparently has been snapping up stock for the last few days and the thing has climbed sky high. It had been down to almost nothing."

"What do you know about the company?" Mason asked.

"Nothing much. It got along pretty well for a while; then the stockholders were reported to •be fighting among themselves. There may be a proxy battle. A fellow by the name of Jarvis Reader is president. He's a queer sort of a duck, apparently a wild-eyed gambler who committed the company to taking up all sorts of leases on territory that had lots of acreage and not very much else. Under his management the stock has been steadily declining for some time. Recently someone started trying to get proxies.

"Now, whenever that happens in a low-priced stock the management tries to counter with news that will put the stock up in price. Hence a good reason for this paragraph in the paper; or they may really have a new field and the insiders have kept the news from the public so as to buy up stock; or it may be just a rumor.

"I was wondering if you have any inside information."

"Not me," Mason said. "I was hoping you had some."

"I've told you mine."

"Okay," Mason said, "buy me fifty shares at the market, regardless of what it costs. I want to be a stockholder in the company."

"Okay, if you say so," the broker said. "But I'd advise you not to go overboard simply on the strength of that newspaper report. That security has been a dog. A lot of people who had held it for years have sold out during the last year and some of them have taken quite a loss."

"Keep your eye on it," Mason said. "If there should be any really startling developments, let me know."

The lawyer hung up the telephone, glanced at Della Street, and said, "I wonder how our client is feeling about now?"

"That," Della Street said, "is a good question. Of course, he said he had the power to buy and sell, but the beneficiary thinks she has a block of that stock and that it's skyrocketing. On the strength of that feeling, she may be committing herself to all sorts of beatnik endowments."

The telephone on Della Street 's desk rang.

Della Street picked it up, said, "Yes, Gertie?" Then after a few moments, said, "Just a minute. Have him wait on the line."

She turned to Perry Mason and said, "Fred Hedley is calling. He says that it's on a matter of the greatest importance and that he knows you will want to talk with him. He has some important information for you."