"Within the last month," Mason said, "have you had any trouble over locating these guns? Has there been any element of confusion at any time within the last month?"

"None whatever," Anclitas said.

"Has one of the guns at any time been missing from its accustomed place?"

"Not that I know of."

"You state that you sometimes carried one of these weapons when you were carrying a large amount of money."

"That's right."

"Does any other person, or did any other person, carry one of those weapons under similar conditions?"

"My partner, Slim, carried one."

"Anyone else?"

"No one else… Now, wait a minute. I think one of the hat-check girls who sometimes stayed at her mother's house and had to go home late at night, carried one for a couple of nights. I stopped her as soon as I found out what she was doing."

"You mean she carried one with her while she was on the job?"

"No, no. She had to take a bus and sometimes when she'd get off-around one or two o'clock in the morning-she was nervous about walking the six blocks to the place where she caught the bus and while she was waiting there. She tried to time her departure so she could leave and catch the bus right on the nose but she didn't dare miss the bus so she had to leave a little early to give herself a margin and sometimes the bus would be a little late. She had an embarrassing experience one night with an exhibitionist and… well, she just started borrowing one of the guns to take in her purse."

"Without telling you anything about it?"

"That's right."

"How did you find out about it?"

"She left her purse in the washroom. The attendant didn't know whose purse it was and took it to the office. I opened it to look for identification and found it was this girl's purse and a gun was in it. It looked like one of our guns, and I called her in the office and asked her about it, and then she admitted that she'd borrowed one from behind the counter."

"And you put a stop to it?"

"Sure I put a stop to it. She didn't have any permit to carry the gun in the first place, and in the second place suppose we'd been held up and the men behind the bar had reached down for the gun and there wouldn't have been any gun there?"

"But she brought the gun back whenever she took it?"

"Objected to as calling for a conclusion of the witness, as calling for hearsay evidence and not being proper cross-examination. It is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial," Burger said.

"The objection is sustained," Judge Keyser ruled.

"What is the name of this young woman who borrowed the gun on occasion?"

"She's the hat-check girl."

"What's her name?"

"Sadie Bradford."

"Were there any witnesses present when you gave this gun to Helman Ellis?"

"Only my partner, Slim Marcus."

"And you state that Slim Marcus on occasion carried one of the guns?"

"Objected to as already asked and answered," Hamilton Burger said.

"Sustained," Judge Keyser snapped.

"And aside from this one file mark on the front sight of the gun which you think you gave Ellis, there were no identifying marks on any of the guns. Is that right?"

"Objected to as already asked and answered. Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. Not proper crossexamination," Burger said.

"Sustained," Judge Keyser snapped.

Mason glanced at the clock. "I have no further questions of this witness," he said.

Hamilton Burger was instantly on his feet. "Call Perry Mason as a witness for the prosecution."

"Take the stand, Mr. Mason," Judge Keyser said.

"Just a moment, Your Honor," Mason said. "I think counsel is forgetting, and perhaps the Court has overlooked the fact, that when Anclitas was put on the witness stand at the request of the district attorney, who wanted to eliminate the necessity of further attendance by Mr. Anclitas, the witness Helman Ellis was on the stand."

"I had concluded my examination of Mr. Ellis," Hamilton Burger said.

"I don't think the record so shows," Mason said. "I think instead the record shows that you said you thought you would have no more questions of that witness at that time."

"All right, I'll announce now, then, that I have concluded with that witness and I ask Mr. Mason to take the stand."

"Just a minute," Mason said. "I haven't had an opportunity to examine Mr. Ellis on re-cross-examination. If you have concluded your redirect examination I want to cross-examine him."

"You don't have anything to cross-examine him about," Hamilton Burger exploded. "All he testified to on redirect was that he had been given a gun by George Anclitas and he kept it on the yacht."

"I want to cross-examine him on that," Mason said.

"And I want you on the witness stand before you've had a chance to concoct any alibi," Hamilton Burger shouted.

"It is your contention that I am to be deprived of my right to cross-examine Mr. Ellis?"

Hamilton Burger took a deep breath. "Very well," he said, "I'll stipulate that the entire testimony of Helman Ellis may go out. I'll withdraw him as a witness. I'll strike all of his evidence out of the record."

"I won't agree to that," Mason said. "I won't so stipulate.''

"Why not?"

"Because I want to cross-examine him."

Hamilton Burger glowered at Mason, then turned toward the Court.

Judge Keyser said, "It is past the hour of the evening adjournment by some minutes, Mr. Burger. I can appreciate the prosecutor's position, but the fact remains that the defense attorney has the right to cross-examine all witnesses called by the prosecution.

"Because I have some commitments and pre-trial conferences at this time and because I know some of the officers of the court have engagements, I am going to adjourn court at this time but I am going to reconvene at eight o'clock tonight. We are going to have an evening session. I think under the circumstances the prosecution is entitled to have its case presented expeditiously."

"The defense objects," Mason said. "It is inconvenient for me personally, and I feel that the defendant is being deprived of her rights."

Judge Keyser shook his head. "I'm not going to permit any technicalities to stand in the way of getting this matter disposed of. The Court will take a recess until eight o'clock this evening, at which time all persons under subpoena in this case will return to the courtroom.

"Court's adjourned."

Mason paced the office floor in frowning concentration.

Della Street presided over an electric coffee percolator. A paper bag of doughnuts was on the office desk.

From time to time Mason would stop, take a few sips from a cup of coffee and munch on a doughnut.

"You're going to need something more nourishing than that," Della Street said anxiously. "Let me go down to the restaurant and get you a ham sandwich or a hamburger or-"

Mason motioned her to silence with a wave of his hand, once more resumed his pacing of the floor.

After nearly a minute he said absentmindedly, "Thanks, Della." And then after some two minutes added, "I've got to think."

"Can I help by asking questions?"

"Try it," Mason said. "No, wait a minute. I'll ask you the questions. You give me the answers. Let's see if I can detect anything wrong."

She nodded.

Mason whirled abruptly, stood facing her with his feet spread apart, his shoulders squared, his manner one that he sometimes used in cross-examining a witness.

"That gun Ellen Robb had," he said, "was locked in our safe from the time Ellen Robb entered the office until we returned it with one exception-when Drake took it to the ballistics expert. Now then, how could a bullet from that gun be in Nadine Ellis' body unless Ellen Robb fired it there?"