and a pastel-colored sweater, that actually made me feel
uncomfortably overdressed in my disguise-spell generated
suit. Fortunately, his manner itself was warm and friendly
enough to put me at my ease almost immediately.
“Pleased to meet you . . . Skeeve, isn’t it?” he said,
extending a hand for a handshake.
“Yes. I … I’m sorry to impose on your schedule like
this …”
“Nonsense. Glad to help. That’s why I’m self-employed
… so I can control my own schedule. Please. Have a seat
and make yourself at home.”
Once we were seated, however, I found myself at a loss
as to how I should begin the conversation. But, with the
Butterfly watching me with attentive expectation, I felt I
had to say something.
“Um . . . Edvik tells me you met at an art auction?”
“That’s right . . . though I’ll admit that for me it was
more of a whim than anything else. Edvik is really much
more the collector and connoisseur than 1 am.”
The cabbie preened visibly under the implied praise.
“No. I just dropped by out of curiosity. I had heard that
96
Robert Asprin
this particular auction had a reputation for being a lot of
fun, so I pulled a couple thousand out of the bank and
wandered in to see for myself. The auctioneers were amus-
ing, and the bidding was lively, but most of the art being
offered didn’t go with my current decor. So when that one
particular item came up . . .”
I tried to keep an interested face on, but my mind wasn’t
on his oration. Instead, I kept pondering the easy way he
had said “… so I pulled a couple thousand …” Clearly