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Nine

"And how did you find the Kathouse?" asked Fenella Pruin, regarding Grimes rather blearily over the breakfast table. Before he had time to reply she said, "These are bloody awful eggs. Where did you get them? Did you steal them out of a mud snake's nest?"

Grimes ignored this latter, answering only the first question. "Expensive," he said. "You owe me . . ."

"I owe you! Come off it, buster!"

"I was helping you in your investigations . . ."

"You were having a bloody good time." She regarded him steadily, accorded him a derisive sneer. "Or were you? With your peculiar problem . . ."

"The fact remains," said Grimes, trying to ignore the burning of his ears, "that I had to pay my admission into the Kathouse. Then I was stuck with a bill for an expensive dinner . . ."

"For you and which floosie?"

"And then I purchased some information."

"Then spill it."

"What about my expenses?"

"You're a mercenary bastard, aren't you? All right. Let me have a detailed account, in writing, and I'll think about it. Get me some more coffee, will you? Then talk." Grimes fetched more coffee.

He said, "In some ways the evening was disappointing. I didn't see anybody doing anything with a bottle and two wine glasses . . ."

She glared at him, snarled. "You don't have to believe everything that you hear—especially from that fat slob Jock McKillick! But did you see the specialty of the house, the kangaroo hunt?"

"Yes."

"Kangaroos are Australian animals, aren't they? You're an Australian. Was the hunt authentic?"

"Kangaroos aren't hunted. They're protected fauna."

"But they must have been hunted once. Centuries ago."

"I wasn't around then. Oh, all right, all right. I suppose that the hunt was an attempt to reconstruct a very ancient, long since dead nomadic culture. Of course, if I'd been stage managing it I'd have given the hunters woomeras and boomerangs . . ."

"What's a woomera? Some sort of weapon, I suppose."

"A spear thrower."

She laughed. "I can just imagine it. Lethal missiles mowing down Katy's customers . . ."

"It would be newsworthy," said Grimes. "Well, anyhow there was the weird music. As far as I know the Australia! aboriginals didn't hunt to music—but those sounds did contribute to the atmosphere. The most convincing part of the hunt was the kangaroos themselves. Those girls with their odd legs . . . And it seems quite definite that they come from a world called New Alice and that they're brought here in Drongo Kane's ship, Willy Willy. The master is Aloysius Dreeble, who used to be Kane's mate in Southerly Buster."

"And they come from New Alice. Anything Australian about that name?"

"Yes. Alice Springs is a city in Central Australia. It's referred to usually just as Alice or the Alice."

"And not for the first time—where the hell is New Alice? Nobody seems to know. Not even you."

"One person will know," said Grimes. "Captain Aloysius Dreeble. And his ship is due in very shortly."

"How do you know?"

"I read the papers," said Grimes smugly.

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Framed