yawning. I remarked that we would be leaving in an hour and twenty minutes and they told me to go soak my head, but I already had. I was expecting to have to manage my own breakfast, but as I was going downstairs Fritz emerged from Wolfe's room, having delivered the breakfast tray nearly on time. It was 8:28, and I went to the office and started the day by dialing Mrs Bruner's number and got her. I told her I was sorry to disturb her so early in the day, but I had an important message, and would she please go out to a booth and ring me at a certain number, which I gave her, at 9:45 or as soon after as possible. She said it would interfere with an appointment and how important was it, and I said extremely, and she said all right.
So we could take our time at breakfast, and it was just as well. Fritz knows that Saul and Fred and Orrie all like eggs au beurre noir, so that was the main item, with toast and bacon, and two rounds for each of us, two eggs to a round, added up to sixteen eggs. The expense account for that operation was going to be a lulu.
With the credentials in my pocket, I left the house with my bodyguard at 9:40, walked to the drugstore at the corner, and stationed myself near the booth. With my understanding of women, I was prepared to wait up to twenty minutes, but at 9:46 it rang, just as a man who had entered was heading for the booth. As I lifted the receiver I decided that he was not a G-man come to take the call; he didn't look the part.
Mrs Bruner said she hoped it was really important because she would be late for her appointment.
'You couldn't possibly have any appointment half as important,' I told her. 'Forget appointments. You are to be at Mr Wolfe's office at a quarter to eleven, not one second later.'
'This morning? I can't.'
'You can and must. You have told me twice that you didn't like my tone, but that was nothing compared to the tone you'll hear unless you say you'll be there. Mr Wolfe might even return the hundred grand.'
'But why? What is it?'
'I'm just the messenger boy. You'll find out when you come. It's not just important, it's vital.'
Short silence. 'A quarter to eleven?'
'Or earlier.'
More silence. 'Very well. I'll be there.'
'Wonderful. You're the perfect client. If you weren't rich I'd marry you.
'What did you say?'
'Nothing.' I hung up.
I didn't feel vital, with only six hours' sleep, but I felt important as I walked crosstown to the Continental Bank and Trust Company on Lexington Avenue with the winter wind at my back. Not many men have had such a bodyguard-the best operative between the two oceans plus two damned good ones. If you think we were overdoing it, what if I stumbled and cracked my skull, or what if I ran into a siren who dazzled me and she turned out to be a G-woman? Anyway, they were there in the house and a walk would do them good. At the bank I went downstairs first, to the safe-deposit box, and stashed the credentials. Upstairs, as I cashed a check for five grand to replenish the cash reserve in the safe, I was thinking that it had been just nine days, to the hour, since I had been there to deposit the retainer. I had thought then that there was one chance in a million. Now…
We had to step on it to get back to the old brownstone by a quarter to eleven, and we barely made it. We were in the hall, shedding coats, when I saw Mrs Bruner's Rolls pull up out in front. When she reached the stoop I had the door open. Fred and Orrie started off, but I called them back.
'Mrs Bruner,' I said, 'how would you like to meet three men who, working for you, rode sixty miles in a truck, curled up inside wooden boxes with the lids screwed on? And who stood for twenty minutes last evening with guns pointed at two FBI men while Mr Wolfe told them things?'
'Why-I would like to.'
'I thought so. Mr Saul Panzer. Mr Fred Durkin. Mr Orrie Cather. You will spend some time with Mr Panzer. If you don't mind, I'll put your coat in the front room. Richard Wragg, the top G-man in New York, is coming, and shouldn't see it.'
Her eyes were wide but her mouth was closed. I decided to marry her in spite of her pile. As I took her coat Fred and Orrie headed for the stairs, to hang around outside the South Room and not let Jarvis and Kirby come down and interrupt the conversation.
At the kitchen end of the hall there is an alcove on the left, and around the corner in the alcove there is a hole in the wall at eye level. On the alcove side of the hole there is a sliding panel, and on the office side the hole is covered by a trick picture of a waterfall. If you stand in the alcove and open the panel you have a view of most of the office through the waterfall, and of course you can hear.
Taking Mrs Bruner to the alcove, followed by Saul, I slid the panel and showed her the hole. 'As I said,' I told her, 'Wragg is coming and will be in the office with Mr Wolfe and me. Mr Panzer will bring the stool from the kitchen, and you'll sit here on it, and he'll stand here. It will last anywhere from ten minutes to two hours, I don't know. You won't understand everything you hear, but you'll understand enough. If you feel a cough or sneeze coming, go to the kitchen fast on your toes. Saul will motion to you if-'
The doorbell rang. I stuck my head around the alcove corner, and there he was on the stoop, five minutes ahead of time. I told Saul to get the stool, and as he headed for the kitchen I started down the hall. At the door I looked back, got a nod from him at the alcove corner, and opened the door.
Richard Wragg was forty-four years old. He lived in an apartment in Brooklyn with a wife and two children and had been with the FBI fifteen years. Detectives know things. He was about my height, with a long face and a pointed chin, and would be bald on top in four years, or maybe three. He didn't offer to shake, but he turned his back as I peeled his coat off, so he trusted me to a certain extent. When I ushered him to the office and to the red leather chair he stood and looked the room over, and I thought he was too interested in the picture of the waterfall, but perhaps not. He was still standing when the sound of the elevator came and Wolfe entered and stopped short of his desk to say, 'Mr Wragg? I'm Nero Wolfe. Be seated.' As he went to his chair Wragg sat down, found he was only on the edge, and slid back.
