LITMIR.BIZ

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      A police officer stepped forward. “Anson Drake, I arrest you in the name of the Shan,” he said.

      Drake grinned. “On what charge?”

      “The theft of the Necklace of Algol.”

      Drake looked directly at Belgezad. “Did old Fatface here say I took it?”

      “You can’t talk that way,” Dobigel snarled, stepping forward.

      “Who says so, Ugly?”

      At that, Dobigel stepped forward and threw a hard punch from his shoulder—straight at Drake’s face.

      It never landed. Drake side-stepped it and brought a smashing uppercut up from his knees. It lifted Dobigel off his feet and sent him crashing back against old Belgezad, toppling them both to the floor.

      The policemen had all drawn their guns, but Drake was standing placidly in the middle of the room, his hands high above his head regarding the scene calmly.

      “I’ll go quietly,” he said. “I’ve got no quarrel with the police.”

      One of the officers led him out into the hall while the others searched his room. Belgezad was sputtering incoherently. Another policeman was trying to wake up Dobigel.

      “If you’re looking for the Necklace of Algol,” Drake said, “you won’t find it there.”

      The captain of the police squad said: “We know that, Mr. Drake. We are merely looking for other evidence. We already have the necklace.” He reached in his belt pouch and took out a small plastic box. He opened it, disclosing a glittering rope of jewels. “You were seen depositing this in a baggage locker at the spaceship terminal. We have witnesses who saw you, and we had it removed under police supervision.”

      Viron Belgezad smiled nastily. “This time you won’t get away, Drake! Stealing anything from the palace of the Shan carries a minimum penalty of twenty years in Thizar Prison.”

      Drake said nothing as they took him off to the Royal Police Station and locked him in a cell.

      * * * *

      It was late afternoon of the next day when the Prosecutor for the Shan visited Drake’s cell. He was a tall, imposing man, and Drake knew him by reputation as an honest, energetic man.

      “Mr. Drake,” he said as he sat down in a chair in the cell, “you have refused to speak to anyone but me. I am, of course, perfectly willing to be of any assistance, but I am afraid I must warn you that any statement made to me will be used against you at the trial.”

      Drake leaned back in his own chair. One thing nice about Thizar, he reflected; they had comfortable jails.

      “My Lord Prosecutor,” he said, “I’d like to make a statement. As I understand it, Belgezad claims he was gassed, along with a police guard who was with him. When he woke up, the necklace was gone. He didn’t see his assailant.”

      “That is correct,” said the Prosecutor.

      Drake grinned. That was the way it had to be. Belgezad couldn’t possibly have bribed the cop, so they both had to be gassed.

      “If he didn’t see his assailant, how does he know who it was?”

      “You were followed from the palace by Jomis Dobigel, who saw you put the necklace into the baggage locker. There are several other witnesses to that.”

      Drake leaned forward. “Let me point out, my Lord Prosecutor, that the only evidence you have that I was anywhere near the palace is the word of Jomis Dobigel. And he didn’t see me inside the palace. I was outside the wall.”

      The Prosecutor shrugged. “We admit the possibility of an assistant inside the walls of the palace,” he said. “We are investigating that now. But even if we never find your accomplice, we have proof that you were implicated, and that is enough.”

      “What proof do you have?” Drake asked blandly.

      “Why, the necklace itself, of course!” The Prosecutor looked as though he suspected Drake of having taken leave of his senses.

      Drake shook his head. “That necklace is mine. I can prove it. It was made for me by a respectable jeweler on Seladon II. It’s a very good imitation, but it’s a phoney. They aren’t diamonds; they’re simply well-cut crystals of titanium dioxide. Check them if you don’t believe me.”

      The Lord Prosecutor looked dumbfounded. “But—what—why—”

      Drake looked sad. “I brought it to give to my good friend, the Noble Belgezad. Of course it would be a gross insult to wear them at the Shan’s Coronation, but he could wear them at other functions.

      “And how does my good friend repay me? By having me arrested. My Lord Prosecutor, I am a wronged man.”

      The Prosecutor swallowed heavily and stood up. “The necklace has, naturally, been impounded by the police. I shall have the stones tested.”

      “You’ll find they’re phonies,” Drake said. “And that means one of two things. Either they are not the ones stolen from Belgezad or else Belgezad has mortally insulted his Shan by wearing false jewels to the Coronation.”

      “Well! We shall see about this!” said the Lord Prosecutor.

      * * * *

      Anson Drake, free as a lark, was packing his clothes in his hotel room when the announcer chimed. He punched the TV pickup and grinned. It was the girl.

      When the door slid aside, she came in, smiling. “You got away with it, Drake! Wonderful! I don’t know how you did it, but—”

      “Did what?” Drake looked innocent.

      “Get away with the necklace, of course! I don’t know how it happened that Dobigel was there, but—”

      “But, but, but,” Drake said, smiling. “You don’t seem to know very much at all, do you?”

      “Wha—what do you mean?”

      Drake put his last article of clothing in his suitcase and snapped it shut. “I’ll probably be searched pretty thoroughly when I get to the spaceport,” he said coolly, “but they won’t find anything on an innocent man.”

      “Where is the necklace?” she asked in a throaty voice.

      Drake pretended not to hear her. “It’s a funny thing,” he said. “Old Belgezad would never let the necklace out of his hands except to get me. He thought he’d get it back by making sure I was followed. But he made two mistakes.”

      The girl put her arms around his neck. “His mistakes don’t matter as long as we have the necklace, do they?”

      Anson Drake was never a man to turn down an invitation like that. He held her in his arms and kissed her—long and lingeringly.

      When he broke away, he went on as though nothing had happened.

      “Two mistakes. The first one was thinking up such an obviously silly plot. If it were as easy to steal jewels from the palace as all that, nothing would be safe on Thizar.

      “The second mistake was sending his daughter to trap me.”

      * * * *

      The girl gasped and stepped back.

      “It was very foolish of you, Miss Belgezad,” he went on calmly. “You see, I happened to know that the real Norma Knight was sentenced to seven years in Seladon Prison over a week ago. Unfortunately, the news hadn’t reached Thizar yet. I knew from the first that the whole thing was to be a frame-up. It’s too bad that your father had to use the real necklace—it’s a shame he lost it.”

      The girl’s eyes blazed. “You—you thief! You—” She used words which no self-respecting lady is supposed to use.

      Drake waited until she had finished, and then said: “Oh, no, Miss Belgezad;

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