Brady was looking grim. 'As far as I am concerned,' he said acidly, 'it remains to be proven that the bottle did not contain iodine, and therefore-'
'Nonsense. I told you on the phone. The piece of turf where the chimpanzee poured some of the contents has been analyzed. Argyrol, no iodine, and a surfeit of tetanus germs. The police have it. I tell you, I tell all of you, that however disagreeable you may find this inquiry as I pursue it, it would be vastly more disagreeable if the police were doing it. Your alternative-'
The doorbell called me away, since Fritz had been told to leave it to me. I dashed out, not wanting to miss anything crucial, and naturally took the precaution, under the circumstances, of pulling the curtain aside for a peek through the glass. It was well that I did. I never saw the stoop more officially populated. Inspector Cramer, Lieutenant Rowcliff, and Sergeant Stebbins! I slipped the chain bolt in place, which would let the door come only five inches, turned the lock and the knob and pulled, and spoke through the crack:
'They don't live here any more.'
'Listen, you goddamn squirt,' Cramer said impolitely. 'Open the door!'
'Can't. The hinge is broke.'
'I say open up! We know they're here!'
'You do in a pig's eye. The things you don't know. If you've got one, show it. No? No warrant? And all the judges out to lunch-'
'By God, if you think-'
'I don't. Mr. Wolfe thinks. All I have is brute force. Like this-'
I banged the door to, made sure the lock had caught, went to the kitchen and stood on a chair and removed a screw, bolted the back door and told Fritz to leave it that way, and returned to the office. Wolfe stopped talking to look at me. I nodded, and told him as I crossed to my chair:
'Three irate men. They'll probably return with legalities.'
'Who are they?'
'Cramer, Rowcliff, Stebbins.'
'Ha.' Wolfe looked gratified. 'Disconnect the bell.'
'Done.'
'Bolt the back door.'
'Done.'
'Good.' He addressed them: 'An inspector, a lieutenant, and a sergeant of police have this building under siege. Since they are investigating murder, and since all of the persons involved have been collected here by me and they know it, my bolted doors will irritate them almost beyond endurance. I shall let them enter when I am ready, not before. If any of you wish to leave now, Mr. Goodwin will let you out to the street. Do you?'
Nobody moved or spoke, or breathed.
Wolfe nodded. 'During your absence, Archie, Dr. Brady stated that outdoors on that terrace, with a breeze going, it is not likely that the absence of the iodine odor would have been noticed by him, or by anyone. Is that correct, doctor?'
'Yes,' Brady said curtly.
'Very well. I agree with you.' Wolfe surveyed the ijroup. 'So X's improvisation was a success. Later, of:ourse, he replaced the genuine iodine in the cupboard and removed the bogus. From his standpoint, it was next to perfect. It might indeed have been perfect, invulnerable to any inquest, if the chimpanzee hadn't poured some of that mixture on the grass. I don't know why X didn't attend to that; there was plenty of time, whole days and nights; possible he hadn't seen the chimpanzee doing it, or maybe he didn't realize the danger. And we know he was foolhardy. He should certainly have disposed of the bogus iodine and the piece of glass he had removed from Miss Huddleston's bath brush when it was no longer needed, but he didn't. He-'
'How do you know he didn't?' Larry demanded.
'Because he kept them. He must have kept them, since he used them. Yesterday he put the bogus iodine in the cabinet in Miss Nichols' bathroom, and the piece of glass in tier bath brush.'
I was watching them all at once, or trying to, but he or she was too good for me. The one who wasn't surprised and startled put on so good an imitation of it that I was no better off than I was before. Wolfe was taking them in too, his narrowed eyes the only moving part of him, his arms folded, his chin on his necktie.
'And,' he rumbled, 'it worked. This morning. Miss Nichols got in the tub, cut her arm, took the bottle from the cabinet, and applied the stuff-'
'Good God!' Brady was out of his chair. 'Then she must-'
Wolfe pushed a palm at him. 'Calm yourself, doctor. Antitoxin has been administered.'
'By whom?'
'By a qualified person. Please be seated. Thank you. Miss Nichols does not need your professional services, but I would like to use your professional knowledge. First- Archie, have you got that brush?'
It was on my desk, still wrapped in the paper Hoskins had got for me. I removed the paper and offered the brush to Wolfe, but instead of taking it he asked me:
'You use a bath brush, don't you? Show us how you manipulate it. On your arm.'
