Pat Novak Says...

"The captain didn't like company. When he hit me, I dropped down to the floor like a piece of hard-working lint. The last thing I remember was Sam Tolliver, sending me out to this boat. I knew then I had no more business here than second trumpet in a string quartet. I could hear voices and people moving around, but it didn't help much. You could get that kind of service in a tomb.

"Somewhere along the line they moved me, because when I woke up, I was lying in a cloud of platine on a different couch in a cabin. The class of people had improved. She was bending over me with a cold towel and a warm look. And from where I was, she had a figure like a shot of brandy on a winter night. When she said hello, you knew that all you had to do was send up a flare and relax."

- Pat Novak for Hire, April 4, 1949 - "Sam Tolliver"