"Where is it?" Neya Tormic's eyes were two йpйes going through him and her tone was a dagger whizzing at him. She was up and at the edge of his desk in one swift movement that reminded me of the lunge Miltan had made with his championship sticker to show me how it was done. She threw the dagger again at short range: "Where is it?"

She turned, because Carla was up too and had grabbed her arm. She shook herself loose, but Carla seized her elbow again and told her sharply, "Neya-Neya! Sit down! Neya-you know-"

Neya spouted a torrent at her that I would have had no symbols for if I had been at my notebook. Carla returned it, but not in a torrent; she was cool and controlled.

Wolfe said, "I understand Serbo-Croat."

They both said, "Oh!"

He nodded. "I used to knock around. I did some work for the Austrian Government when I was too young to know better. And I was in your country in 1921, and adopted a daughter-"

"I want that paper."

"I know you do, Miss Lovchen. But I won't even discuss it, let alone return it to you, unless you children sit down and behave yourselves. None of this jumping up and cater-wauling; I don't like it; besides, it won't do you any good. Sit down!"

They sat.

"That's better. I mentioned that paper only to show you how I knew you were lying when you said you aren't in this country on a political mission-and by the way, I suppose you lied to the police too? Of course you did. Now that the paper's been mentioned-where did you get it, Miss Lovchen?"

"I. " She fingered her skirt. "I got it "

"Where and how? Is it yours?"

"I stole it "

Neya snapped. "You did not! I stole it myself!"

Wolfe shrugged. "Split the honours. Who did you steal it from?"

"From the person who had it "

"From the Princess Vladanka Donevitch?"

"I won't tell you "

"Good. That's better than trying to lie. Is the princess in New York now?"

"I won't tell you anything about that paper "

"You are in danger. You are actually in peril of your life. Faber's unsupported alibi is the only thing between you and an indictment for murder. Do you want my assistance in the removal of that danger?"

"Yes " It looked for an instant as if she were going to smile at him, but she didn't. "Yes," she repeated, "I do "

"Are you prepared to pay me-my usual fee? Several thousand dollars, for instance?"

"My God, no " She glanced at Carla and back at him. "But. I might "

"But when you sent Miss Lovchen here in the first place, you expected me to help you because you are my adopted daughter, didn't you?"

She nodded. "I thought you might feel-"

"I carry this fat to insulate my feelings. They got too strong for me once or twice and I had that idea. If I had stayed lean and kept moving around I would have been dead long ago. You are aware that I have no proof that you are my daughter. You sent Miss Lovchen here with that record of adoption bearing my signature. Another paper Did you steal that too?"

Carla ejaculated something indignant. Neya was on her feet, with her eyes flashing. "If you think I did that, there's no use-"

"I don't think you did that I just don't know I asked you to stop jumping up. Please sit down, Miss Tormic. Thank you I used to be idiotically romantic. I still am, but I've got it in hand. I thought it romantic, when I was a boy, twenty-five years ago, to be a secret agent of the Austrian Government. My progress towards maturity got interrupted by the World War and my experience with it War doesn't mature men; it merely pickles them in the brine of disgust and dread. Pfui! After the war I was still lean and I moved around. In Montenegro I assumed responsibility for the sustenance and mental and physical thrift of a three-year-old orphan girl by adopting her I did something else there, too, which advanced my maturity, but that has nothing to do with you I saw that girl's ribs. The something else I did finished Montenegro for me, and I left the girl, I thought, in good hands, and returned to America "

Wolfe leaned back and let his lids down a little. "You go on from there, please "

Neya said, "You left me in Zagreb with Pero Brovnik and his wife "

"That's right Your name?"

"My name was Anna. When I was eight years old they were arrested as revolutionaries and shot I don't remember that very well, but I know all about it "

"Yes " Wolfe looked grim. "And for three years the money I continued to send to Zagreb was appropriated by someone in Brovnik's name, and when I got suspicious and went over there, in spite of the fact that I was no longer lean, I got nowhere I couldn't find the girl I got no satisfaction about the money I got put in jail, and the American Consul got me out and I was given ten hours to leave the country " He made a face. "I have not been in Europe, or in jail, since. Where were you?"

"I was eleven years old then "

"Yes I can add. Where were you?"

She looked at him a while before she spoke. "I can't tell you that "

"You'll either tell me that or march on out of here and not come back. And I have the paper which you stole and your friend left in my book for safekeeping. Now don't start cater-wauling."

Carla said, "Tell him, Neya "

"But, Carla! then he'll know

"Tell him!"

"And tell the truth," Wolfe advised, "or I'll know that, and I'll know it even better after I've cabled Europe "

She told him. "When the Brovniks were arrested I was sent to an institution. A year later I was taken out by a woman named Mrs Campbell."

"Who was she?"

"She was the English secretary of Prince Peter Donevitch."

"What did she want with you?"

"She visited the institution and she took a liking to me. My ribs didn't show then. She wanted to adopt me, but she couldn't, legally, on account of you."

"Why didn't she communicate with me?"

"Because. her connexion with Prince Donevitch. The kind of friends you had in Yugoslavia, like the Brovniks. They knew you would make trouble, and they didn't want trouble from an American."

"No. You can't take an American out and shoot him. So she just stole the money I sent for three years."

"I don't know anything about that."

"Where is she now?"

"She died four years ago."

"Where did you go then?"

"I continued to live there."

"With Donevitch?"

"In that house."

"Did young Prince Stefan live there?"

"Yes, he-he and his sisters."

"And his wife?"

"After-of course. When he was married, two years ago."

"Were you treated as one of the family?"

"No." She hesitated and then said more emphatically, "No, I wasn't."

Wolfe turned abruptly to Carla Lovchen and snapped at her, "Are you Stefan's wife-the Princess Vladanka?"

Her eyes popped open, "Me? Boga ti! No!"

"You had that paper which you put in my book."

Neya said, "I told you I stole that paper. I don't always lie."

"Where did you steal it-Zagreb or New York?"

She shook her head. "I can't tell you about that paper. Not even-no matter what you do."

He grunted. "Your secret political mission. I know. Die first. I used to play that silly dirty game myself. But since you live in the same house with the Princess Vladanka, you must know her pretty well. Are you and she friends?"

"Friends?" Neya's forehead showed a crease. "No."

"What's she like?"

"She is clever, beautiful, selfish, and treacherous."

"Indeed. What does she look like?"

"Well. she is tall. Her arms move like snakes. Her face is like this." Neya described an oval with her fingers. "Her eyes are as black as mine-sometimes blacker."

"Is she in Zagreb now?"

"She was when I left. It was said she was going to Paris to see old Prince Peter and then to America."

"You're lying."

She looked straight at him. "Sometimes it is necessary to lie. There are some things I can't tell."