"Well, yes" said the tall one, “To get to it we chased a man carrying your handbag into that store back there and we'd like to know how you have the same bag."

"I really haven't the faintest idea" I said loftily, fixing my hair pret- tily, "unless maybe there are two bags like this."

The tall cop wasn't so sure, now, but he was stubborn. "The man had about the same build as you" he persisted.

I laughed and said "You mean I look like a man?" I laughed again.

The tall cop was getting mad. "Now look here!" he said, raising his voice, “I ...'

""

He didn't reckon with Millie, of course. Millie'd got just a glimpse of the action as she recognized the cops passing her shop. She left her cus- tomers immediately-some of them, anyway, and came to where the cops and I were. Some of the customers (girls that they were) followed, of course. We had a pretty good crowd in no time but it was pretty clear in nothing flat that it was Millie who was taking charge.

"What is it this time?" Millie wanted to know. The tall cop now liked things even less. His last interview with Millie hadn't been exact- ly a howling success and he'd have liked her out of it. He decided that the best thing was to put a bold face on it.

"We've found the character you said wasn't in your store” he said, "She-I mean-ah-it came out of it just now.”

"And where might ‘it' be?" Millie wanted to know.

"Right here" the cop said smugly, indicating me with a nod of his head.

"Dorothy?" Millie said, laughing loudly enough to be heard a block away which she undoubtedly was, "Dorothy's the male character you said you chased into my shop?" She laughed some more. The cop didn't like it much. He tried to retain control of himself, though.

"She—I mean, it, dammit—may not look much like a male now" he said angrily, "but we can have her examined by a physician at the sta- tion, if that's what she wants." He was very threatening now.

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