truth, he had had an even worse case—but the solving of it-that was something else! "And that's all there was to it!" the boss continued. "Now then, Cooper. We've wasted enough time. Let's find that kid of yours before the police do."

Actually, finding Peter was relatively simple. The boss had sug- gested several likely spots and in the third of these a seldom used part of the railroad switch yard, they found him. Locating him was easy: however, he was in company with several other boys, all looking uniformly unkempt with bushy haircuts and greasy jackets. Some of them were throwing knives at a board and all of them had cigarettes dangling from one corner of their mouths. "God, I'm afraid to go down there!" said Cooper.

"You must!" said the boss. "And remember, don't back down-re- member what I told you."

With a feeling that his knees had turned to Jell-o, Cooper walked down an embankment toward the group of boys who turned to watch him unconcernedly. Cooper walked directly into the circle and stood between his son's outstretched feet. "Get up, Peter!" he commanded with what he hoped was an authoritative tone. Peter ignored him. Re- membering then the tone of voice with which he had once lashed a company of men into a fanatic body of highly-efficient assault troops, he roared out the command again and simultaneously placed one foot under the boy's thigh and heaved. Peter went sprawling but rose to his feet quickly, looking at his father with hate in his eyes. Cooper merely stepped over to him, grabbed one arm and quickly twisted it behind the boy's back. Howling in pain, and an unaccustomed fear, the boy danced ahead of him away from the group of boys. A shout from up the embankment of "Lookout!" caused Cooper to relapse into forgot- ten combat skills. With a single motion, he pushed his son forward and onto the ground, turned and with a smooth gesture, intercepted the up- flung arm of the attacking boy, and with a sideways-step, hooked the boy's ankle and flipped him. The knife dropped at Cooper's feet while the tightly held arm gave out an omnous crack. Cooper dropped the boy then, picked up the knife, broke the blade under his foot and threw the pieces down. None of the rest of the group moved. He turned back to his son who was watching wide-eyed. “Get up!” “Y-yes, sir.” the boy scrambled ahead of him up the embankment. Once seated in the boss' car, Cooper was aware of a very fatigued feeling as the adre- nalin drained out of his system.

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