cursed bit of stupidity, this had been the most fun of all the operations. The Chief would have to be asked if Gloria couldn't be used again be- fore the SMO took her away. Only now it was too late! Suddenly, Gloria's mind was alert again. It was a point of pride that she allowed no physical tension to betray her alertness. Nevertheless, the evil old woman sensed something as well and tightened her grip yet again. "Hss't," she warned Herr Zimmer, whose regular breathing scarce changed tone as he rolled around to bear his attention on a tiny scratch- ing sound at the window. There was the faintest of cracking noises and a sibilance of fabric against wood. Frau Zimmer had silently stood erect and was holding her captive at a short distance from her- self, her attention riveted on the imperceptible glow that seeped through the opened window.

Suddenly, there was a blaze of light as Herr Zimmer threw the switch and the sounds of shots rang out. As soon as the light had exploded searingly in Gloria's eyes, she had kicked backward, then rolled, grop- ing upward with the sharpened stay which she had maneuvered into her free hand in the seconds after Frau Zimmer stood up. Still shielding her eyes, Gloria looked anxiously at the far end of the room, then as normal vision returned, at corpses of her recent captors. God, but that had been close.

Her rescuer strode swiftly over to the inert forms, rolling each of them over. "Hello." Looks like this one belongs to you old bean" as he indi- cated Frau Zimmer's body and the short end of the corset stay protrud- ing just beneath her sternum. “And that's that.”

And then agent 661, alias Gloria Patria, did a very feminine thing. He fainted. "My word!" said the other as he alternately chafed the limbs of his unconscious partner.

Gloria revived quickly and continued the massage of the bruised shoulder cramped and aching from the hours-long grip of the old woman. "You know, I really thought they had us there!" "So did they. But then we knew something they didn't, old chap. Something very fatal to them. You see, the second I saw the situation, I knew it would be al- right—not that I don't thank you for a neat bit of work with that corset thing. But the old man and his wife thought my attention would be diverted to you—as it should have been had you in fact been a real girl. But they didn't know that. So I concentrated on the old man and when Mama Sow saw that, Oh my! she forgot completely about you and went for me which was what I wanted. That particular little sword has

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