"quad" is generally the abbreviation for a/the quadrangle in an elizabethan, stuart or uk hanoverian country house, college or pretty fancy town house inner courtyard, frequently but not inevitably including a lawn or similar: in pre-henry tydder/henry viii fidei defensor (ha!) times, often spectacularly stone-cloistered for monks, nuns, abbots and other prelates to pass both the time in contemplation whilst in circular progression, and also for them to take decorous exercise whilst enabling them to avoid the weather...
yr hmbl srppnt.'s unshakeable 'spicion is the title is a tyop for "hellsquad" missed by the publisher's copy and/or proof-reader, which would fit the protagonists, the circumstances and the plot. . .
daw books mmpb near-identical first printings sharing merkin-printed covers and hence also cat#, isbn, and
cover art by frank kelly freas (signed, credited)
near-meaningless daw books collectors number 592
cover price (canada $2.95) • u.s. $2.50
160pp. including 4pp. titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
refer to indicia to see if carcass of copy held was canadadian- or merkin- printed
simultaneously published, but canadian-carcassed copies drop the "1" from the printing number-string
leaving: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, formally identifying them as the second printing