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Dan wins a hideous lamp at a carnival with something hidden inside it, that someone is willing to kill for.
A typewritten, unsigned note arrives in box 13 with a request for a covert meeting with Dan Holiday. Of course, Dan is the curious type, and goes to the charity bazaar, where a mystery person slips a note into his jacket pocket.
Following instructions, Dan goes to the booth to guess1862 as the number of beans in a jar. The woman at the booth doesn’t seem to recognize the number, but Dan wins the prize, and takes the heavy, wrapped package home to his office. It’s the ugliest lamp he’s seen, so he gives it to Suzie.
All that’s left is an empty box, which Dan takes home. Later, Dan is awakened to a knock at the door, and gets a thump on the head. He awakens to a ruffled apartment, but his wallet and certain other valuables are accounted for. Dan figures it has to do with the lamp, and calls to make sure Suzie is OK.
He rushes over to have a closer look at the lamp. There’s no hidden messages, or valuables tucked away inside it. Do they want the lamp itself? Dan has it appraised, but it’s a plain old lamp. As he leaves, Dan spots the man who clobbered him, so he leaves the lamp in the store, then watches our mystery man go inside, and of course he makes a beeline for the lamp and buys it.
Lots of unanswered questions, but later Dan’s mystery man is back to hold him at gunpoint. He gets taken for a long ride to a remote part of the country. Dan takes a beating, but it’s to protect Suzie from having the thugs visit her. What is missing from the lamp, and is so important?
Dan goes to the estate that sponsored the charity event, and is afraid that diamonds might be missing. The diamond seems to be there, but might it be a fake? Talking over matters with the old gent of the estate, things suddenly click for Dan, and he’s off to find a missing diamond. Suzie inadvertently threw the diamond away, so Dan gets to dig through trash at the city dump.
What about the thugs who took the diamond to begin with? In a fight, with tommyguns blasting, Dan takes down the bad guy, then later Suzie shares her own slant on the lamp mystery.
