Envoi

I have chosen to launch my little shallop without top hats on the pier; but I cannot forbear a parting salute to the friends that helped me build her:

To CURT A. ZIMANSKY, instigator;

To my brother, J. R. DE LA TORRE BUENO, JR., encourager and adviser;

To JOHN DICKSON CARR, trail-blazer;

To LEWIS KNAPP, savant and bibliophile;

To JAMES SANDOE, authority and bibliographer of the detective genre;

Last, as first, to G. S. M., scholar, kibitzer, Guggenheim.