is mine, you know."

Drake was coy.

"Aw," he insisted. "I had a ticket for it."

She slipped between them, her arm around Drake's shoulder. Realizing that he was drunk, she tried a different approach.

"Now what would you do with it?" she asked sweetly. "You would look funny wearing a silver fox jacket. You'd be just an old fox."

Jim hesitated. Then he slipped the jacket from his arm and around her soft shoulder.

"I'll make a deal with you," he suggested. "Let us take you home and you can have the old animal."

or the first time his eyes were clearing enough to get a really good look at the girl at his side. He started to wonder vaguely how she had gotten here. She was small and her tiny face seemed almost cupid-like to his uncertain vision. Her eyes were frightened like the eyes of a timid animal.

"Okay!" Puffy said sharply. "You've made a bargain. I ain't driving all night. Where to?"

Her voice snapped out sharp and cold.

"Nowhere. Stop right here."

Jim Drake chuckled.

"Wait a minute," he stammered. "Be a sport. You promised."

He looked away for an instant, trying to shake some of the fog from his head. When he looked back the girl was gone. There between them on the seat was a small silver fox.

He shook his head dazedly and groaned.

"They got me," he moaned. "Stop car. I got to...."

Puffy took his eyes from the road. A sharp oath escaped his lips. The brakes squealed as he felt sharp teeth settle deeply into his wrist. Howling with pain he twisted the coupe to the curb.

The fox released its grip and leaped gracefully over the door into the street. It was gone, weaving swiftly like a small dog through the straggling crowd. It went out of sight quickly into a nearby alley.

"Holy Ned!" Puffy held a bleeding wrist in his good hand. "I'm getting this way from being with you."

Jim Drake's lips quivered strangely and he turned pale.

"I wanna' go home. Don't wanna' see anyone. No one, understand?"

Puffy nodded, but Drake persisted brokenly.

"Fox woman, that's what she is. Darned old fox woman wouldn't play fair...!" His lips murmured off into something Puffy couldn't understand.

ong shafts of sunlight split the obscure shadows that had hidden Jim Drake's room for the past twelve hours. Drake turned over carefully in bed, groaned and reached for the full glass on the table.

"Puffy!" His voice arose in shattering crescendo across the stillness of the rich apartment and crashed against the door. "Puffy—it's me. Take these damned rocks off my head."

Adams opened the door and came forward with a sly grin on his face.

"Okay—Okay." He was impatient. "I'm coming, Cinderella."

Drake swallowed the contents of the glass in a single gulp and stretched out with a sickly grin.

"That was a wonderful dream I had last night," he said weakly. "Remind me to call Walt Disney."

Adams went across the room and drew open the curtains. A two o'clock sun slipped into the room and Drake hid himself hurriedly in the pillow.

"Turn out that damned light," he shouted. "Now—about that fox woman. Walt Disney oughta' pay...."

Puffy had braced his feet and placed his stocky arms behind his back.

"It wasn't any dream," he said calmly.

"Yea, I know. I was drunk."

"It wasn't a dream," Puffy said stubbornly. "That girl you saw really was a fox. At least she turned into one. Oh! Damn!"

He tossed the morning paper on the bed.

"Read what the Star had to say about your dream," he said. "They got the story straighter than I did. We took a lady for a ride,