explored by Bascom, and one seemed to offer at least a faint promise. Mr. Chapin might call at the office of his publisher and, wishing to alter a manuscript, or even merely to write a letter, request the use of a typewriter. I am counting on Mr.
Farrell to discover that; having discovered it, he may be able to get Mr. Oglethorpe's permission to take a sample of the work of the machine that Chapin used – or if that is not known, of each machine in their office.'
I nodded. 'That's not very dumb. I'm surprised that Farrell can still pay his dues at the Harvard Club.'
'When a man of a certain type is forced into drastic financial retrenchment, | he first deserts his family, then goes naked, and then gives up his club. Which reminds me, I gave Mr. Farrell twenty dollars this afternoon. Please record it.
You may also note on your list those who have initialed the memorandum, and file the various copies. Also, note that we •have an additional contributor. Miss Evelyn Hibbard. I arranged it with her x ^' – '.^j • g^;^ ‹y'i •;'..'''?. ^•, Sal this morning. The amount is three thousand dollars.' He sighed. 'I made a large reduction from the ten thousand she offered Saturday on account of the altered circumstances.' ‹ I had been waiting for that, or something like it. I made the Farrell entry in the cashbook, but didn't get out the list. I felt like clearing my throat, but I knew that wouldn't do, so I swallowed instead. I put the cashbook back and turned to Wolfe:
'You understand, sir, I wouldn't accuse you of trying to put anything over. I know you just forgot about it.'
His eyes opened at me. 'Archie. You are trying the cryptic approach again. To what this time?' 'No, sir. This is on the level. You just forgot that Miss Evelyn Hibbard is my client. I went to see her Saturday at your suggestion; you couldn't take her on because you had other plans in mind.
Remember, sir? So of course any arrangement she might make in this connection could only be with my advice and consent.' w Wolfe was keeping his eyes open.
He murmured, 'Preposterous. Puerile trickery. You would not attempt to maintain that position.'
I sighed, as much like one of his sighs as I could make it. ‹I hate to, sir. I really do. But it's the only honest thing I can do, protect my client. Of course you understand the ethics of it, I don't have to explain -'
He cut me off. 'No. I would suggest that you refrain from explaining. How much would you advise your client to pay?'
'One thousand bucks.' n
'Absurd. In view of her original offer-'
'All right. I won't haggle. I'll split the difference with you. Two thousand. I stick there. I'm glued.' j Wolfe shut his eyes. 'Done, confound you. Enter it. – Now take your notebook. Tomorrow morning…' u.'
9
Wednesday morning pretty early I was sitting in the kitchen, with the Times propped up in front of me but not really seeing it because I was busy in my mind mapping out the day, getting on towards the bottom of my second cup of coffee, when Fritz returned from a trip to the front door to say that Fred Durkin wanted to see me. One thing I hate to be disturbed at is my last two healthy swallows of morning coffee, so I nodded and took my time. When I got to the office Fred was sitting there scowling at his hat on the floor, where it had landed when he had tried to toss it so it would hook on the back of my chair. He always missed. I picked it up and handed it to him and said:
'A dollar even you can^t do it once out of ten tries.'
He shook his big Irish bean. 'No time.
I'm a workingman. I was just waiting for you to pick your teeth. Can I see Wolfe?'
'You know damn well you can't. Up to eleven o9 clock Mr. Nero Wolfe is a horticulturist.'
'Uh-huh. This is special.'
'Not special enough for that. Spill it to the Chief of Staff. Has the lop put dust in your eyes? Why aren't you on his tail?'
'I don't relieve Johnny until nine. 141 be there.' Durkin grabbed his hat by the brim, squinted for an aim, tossed it at the back of my chair again, and missed it by a mile. He grunted with disgust. 'Listen here, Archie. It's a washout.' r 'What's the matter with it?'
'Well, you put three of us on this to cover him twenty-four hours a day. When Wolfe spends money like that, that shows it's important. He really wants this bird's program. Also, you told us to use taxis all we needed to, and so on. Well it's a washout. Chapin lives in an apartment house at 203 Perry Street with six floors and an elevator. He's on the fifth. The house has a big court in the back, with a couple of trees and some shrubs, and in the spring it's full of tulips. The elevator boy told me three thousand tulips. But the idea is that there's another house on the court, facing on Eleventh Street, built by the same landlord, and so what? Anybody that wants to can go out of the Perry Street house the back way instead of the front. They can cross the court and go through a passage and come out on Eleventh Street. Of course they could get back in the same way if they felt like it.
So parked in a cigar store the other side of Perry Street with my eye fastened on 203, I feel about as useful as if I was watching one of the tunnel exits at the Yankee 1 Stadium for a woman in a dark hat. Not that I've
