"Take them off. You heard me."
"Now wait a minute--" she began dangerously.
I said: "Do what I tell you, hear? How do I know you haven't got a
knife tucked away?"
She clenched her teeth. "Why, you dirty little man! What do you
think--" Then she shrugged. She looked at me with contempt and said:
"All right. What's the difference?"
Well, there was a considerable difference. She began to unzip and
unbutton and wriggle, and pretty soon she was standing there in her
underwear, looking at me as though I were a two-headed worm. It was
interesting, but kind of embarrassing. I could see Arthur's eye-stalk
waving excitedly out of the opened suitcase.
I picked up her skirt and blouse and shook them. I could feel myself
blushing, and there didn't seem to be anything in them.
I growled: "Okay, I guess that's enough. You can put your clothes back
on now."
"Gee, thanks," she said.
She looked at me thoughtfully and then shook her head as if she'd
never seen anything like me before and never hoped to again. Without
another word, she began to get back into her clothes. I had to admire
her poise. I mean she was perfectly calm about the whole thing. You'd
have thought she was used to taking her clothes off in front of
strange men.
Well, for that matter, maybe she was; but it wasn't any of my
business.
* * * * *
Arthur was clacking distractedly, but I didn't pay any attention to
him. I demanded: "All right, now who are you and what do you want?"
She pulled up a stocking and said: "You couldn't have asked me that in
the first place, could you? I'm Vern Eng--"
"_Cut it out!_"
She stared at me. "I was only going to say I'm Vern Engdahl's partner.
We've got a little business deal cooking and I wanted to talk to you
about this proposition."
Arthur squawked: WHATS ENGDAHL UP TO NOW Q Q SAM IM WARNING YOU I DONT
LIKE THE LOOK OF THIS THIS WOMAN AND ENGDAHL ARE PROBABLY
DOUBLECROSSING US
I said: "All right, Arthur, relax. I'm taking care of things. Now
start over, you. What's your name?"