Well, he had his own appetites, by God, and he hadn't done too badly over the years either! If theirs had been the conventional marriage it would never have lasted, but he was smart enough to see that Lauralee was like a horse with the bit in its teeth-let her have her head and run, and she would come right back to the stable when the fun was over. No, he would never divorce her-for one thing, the Quigg family holdings were the base that lay under the considerable fortune Blodgett had built up-the real estate, the bank and the saw mill all contributed handsomely. The drugstore was only something he had bought up cheap, on a whim, mainly to get the building. He had no real interest in it and would be glad to see it go, once it had provided the cash for the sea-front apartment in Florida.

Whistling cheerfully, he selected the papers he wanted and placed them in his briefcase. Then he locked the others away in the desk and snapped his fingers at Duke. The well-trained animal rose immediately and padded silently out of the office with his master.

Blodgett entered the bank, nodding and speaking to various patrons as he made his way to the rear and walked directly into his brother-inlaw's office without announcing himself. The room was far more sumptuously furnished than Blodgett's dusty office upstairs, so that anyone who did not know better might suppose that Lee Quigg was the more important of the two men. However, in his dealings, it suited the crafty Blodgett to retain his poor-boy-makes-good image-the local people trusted him because it seemed like he was really one of them. He seated himself on the massive brocaded couch and drew up a silver ashtray.

"Hi, Lee. You doin' all right?"

"Can't complain," his brother-in-law said mildly, swiveling his leather armchair around to face Blodgett, who wasted no time in getting to the point.

"Ray Denham is gonna be over here one of these days to see you about a loan-he wants to buy the store, only he hasn't got any money."