Shayne grinned and reached out his arm to take the bottle for a short drink. He said: “Here’s to more and bigger troubles,” and then went on:

“The ladder at the window. Was that just fortuitously left around?”

“Brought in for the job. One of those sectional affairs made of light metal. Aluminum or magnesium or something. You see them advertised under Army Surplus bargains in the Sunday papers. They don’t bill them that way, but might as well advertise them as Second-Story-Worker Specials.”

Shayne said, “Give me a quick run-over on the rest of the household.”

“A batch of other servants I don’t know about. You can be sure they all knew about Laura’s propensity for hanging one on and leaving her emeralds lying around. Then there’s Julio’s secretary, whom you’re just going to love; a governess, whom you’re probably going to lay; and the two Brats.” He gave the final word a capital B and reached for the bottle again.

Shayne ran knobby fingers through his hair and said: “Come again.”

“Edwin and Edwina. Julio’s first-born, and the best positive proof of the degeneration of the species I’ve run into for a long time.” He waved Shayne’s speculative glance aside with a long thin hand and shook his head stubbornly. “I’ll not deprive you of the pleasure of meeting them first-hand.”

Shayne looked at his watch and asked a final question:

“Know what firm carried the insurance?”

“Not a firm. A man named Hamilton Barker is the adjuster who’s handling the claim. He refused to talk to me about it. In fact, there was a lot of hush-hush on the whole thing.”