"I pray not."

"And where have you put Terence?"

"Next to Nelly, at your left."

"Good heavens, Vance, that's almost directly opposite the sheriff. You'll
have them practically facing each other."

It was the main thing he was striving to attain. He placated her
carefully.

"I had to. There's a danger. But the advantage is huge. You'll be there
between them, you might say. You can keep the table talk in hand at that
end. Flash me a signal if you're in trouble, and I'll fire a question
down the table at the sheriff or Terry, and get their attention. In the
meantime you can draw Terry into talk with you if he begins to ask the
sheriff what you consider leading questions. In that way, you'll keep the
talk a thousand leagues away from the death of Black Jack."

He gained his point without much more trouble. Half an hour later the
table was surrounded by the guests. It was a table of baronial
proportions, but twenty couples occupied every inch of the space easily.
Vance found himself a greater distance than he could have wished from the
scene of danger, and of electrical contact.

At least four zones of cross-fire talk intervened, and the talk at the
farther end of the table was completely lost to him, except when some new
and amazing dish, a triumph of Wu Chi's fabrication, was brought on, and