He came forward in his chair for a glance at the cheque, caught my eye and saw how I felt about it, heaved a sigh, and spoke.
“Your notebook, Archie. Confound it.
Chapter Two
The following morning, Saturday, I was in the office typing the final report on a case which I will not identify by name because it was never allowed to get within a mile of a newspaper or a microphone. We were committed on Mrs Rackham's job, since I had deposited her cheque Friday afternoon, but no move had been made yet, not even a phone call to any of the names she had given us, because it was Wolfe's idea that first of all we must have a look at him. With Wolfe's settled policy of never leaving his house on business, and with no plausible excuse for getting Barry Rackham to the office, I would have to do the looking, and that had been arranged for.
Mrs Rackham had insisted that her husband must positively not know or even suspect that he was being investigated, and neither must anyone else, so the arrangements for the look were a little complicated. She vetoed my suggestion that I should be invited to join a small week-end gathering at her country home in Westchester, on the ground that someone would probably recognise the Archie
Goodwin who worked for Nero Wolfe. It was Calvin Leeds who offered an amendment that was adopted. He had a little place of his own at the edge of her estate, where he raised dogs, called Hillside Kennels. A month ago one of his valuable dogs had been poisoned, and I was to go there Saturday afternoon as myself, a detective named Archie Goodwin, to investigate the poisoning. His cousin would invite him to her place, Birchvale, for dinner, and I would go along.
It was a quiet Saturday morning in the office, with Wolfe up in the plant rooms as usual from nine to eleven, and I finished typing the report of a certain case with no interruptions except a couple of phone calls which! handled myself, and one for which I had to give Wolfe a buzz-from somebody at Mummiani's on Fulton
Street to say that they had just got eight pounds of fresh sausage from Bill
Darst at Hackettstown, and Wolfe could have half of it. Since Wolfe regards
Darst as the best sausage-maker west of Cherbourg, he asked that it be sent immediately by messenger, and for heaven's sake not with dry ice.
When at 11.1, the sound of Wolfe's elevator came, I got the big dictionary in front of me on my desk, opened to H, and was bent over it as he entered the office, crossed to his over-sized custom-built chair, and sat. He didn't bite at once because his mind was elsewhere. Even before he rang for beer he asked, “Has the sausage come?
Without looking up I told him no.
He pressed the button twice-the beer signal-leaned back, and frowned at me. I didn't see the frown, absorbed as I was in the dictionary, but it was in his tone of voice.
“What are you looking up? he demanded.
“Oh, just a word, I said casually. “Checking up on our client. I thought she was illiterate, her calling you handsome-remember? But, by gum, it was merely an understatement. Here it is, absolutely kosher: 'Handsome: moderately large.' For an example it gives 'a handsome sum of money.' So she was dead right, you're a handsome detective, meaning a moderately large detective. I closed the dictionary and returned it to its place, remarking cheerfully, “Live and learn!
It was a dud. Ordinarily that would have started him tossing phrases and adjectives, but he was occupied. Maybe he didn't even hear me. When Fritz came from the kitchen with the beer, Wolfe, taking from a drawer the gold bottle opener that a pleased client had given him, spoke.
“Fritz, good news. We're getting some of Mr Darst's sausage-four pounds.
Fritz let his eyes gleam. “Ha! To-day?
“Any moment. Wolfe poured beer. “That raises the question of cloves again. What do you think?
“I'm against it, Fritz said firmly.
Wolfe nodded. “I think I agree. I think I do. You may remember what Marko Vukcic said last year-and by the way, he must be invited for a taste of this. For
Monday luncheon?
“That would be possible, Fritz conceded, “but we have arranged for shad with roe-
“Of course. Wolfe lifted his glass and drank, put it down empty, and used his handkerchief on his lips. That, he thought, was the only way for a man to scent a handkerchief. “We'll have Marko for the sausage at Monday dinner, followed by duck Mondor. He leaned forward and wiggled a finger. “Now about the shallots and fresh thyme: there's no use depending on Mr Colson. We might get diddled again. Archie will have to go-
At that point Archie had to go answer the doorbell, which I was glad to do. I fully appreciate, mostly anyhow, the results of Wolfe's and Fritz's powwows on grub when it arrives at the table, but the gab often strikes me as overdone. So
I didn't mind the call to the hall and the front door There I found a young man with a pug nose and a package, wearing a cap that said “Fleet Messenger
Service. I signed the slip, shut the door, started back down the hall, and was met not only by Fritz
