ever be pursued except by lawyers.'
The lawyer would have taken a much worse crack than that without offense. He didn't even feel it. He shook his head earnestly. 'I would welcome such a meeting,' he declared. 'But I would want to have some idea of what I was letting myself in for. If I knew that you and Mr. Goodwin were going to state that both Priscilla Eads and Helmar had either implied or acknowledged the authenticity-'
'No,' Wolfe said flatly. 'By making me a flagrantly improper offer you have forfeited all right to amenity. You'll have to take it as it comes.'
And that was the best Irby could get, though he was so stubborn about it that I finally crossed over to pick up his briefcase and hand it to him, and by then it was dinnertime. When I closed the front door and turned after letting him out, Wolfe was emerging from the office, headed for the dining room.
'Are you satisfied?' he barked at me.
'No, sir,' I said politely. 'And neither are you.'
Chapter 9
The next morning, Thursday, I cashed in on an investment. I needed some kind of a break. There had been no follow-up of any kind on the Irby thing. Granted for the sake of argument that after dinner Wednesday evening was no time for it, what was wrong with Thursday morning? I decided for the thousandth time that I didn't have the right temperament for working for Nero Wolfe. If I had, I would long ago have quit being exasperated by his matter-of-fact assumption that, barring specific urgencies, there was no point in starting the day's detecting activities until after he came down from the plant rooms at eleven o'clock. And anyway it seemed to me that this was a specific urgency. So when I had got up and shaved and showered and dressed, and gone down and greeted Fritz and had breakfast, and read the morning paper, learning among other things that no one had been charged with the murder of Priscilla Eads or Margaret Fomos, and proceeded to the office and opened the morning mail, and nine o'clock had come and gone with no word from on high, I buzzed the plant rooms on the house phone and got him and inquired, 'Do you invite people to the party or do I?'
'Neither, until we're sure of Mr. Hagh.' He was gruff, of course.
'He'll land at three.'
'Or never.'
That was it. One of his deepest convictions was that no vehicle propelled by machinery, from a scooter to an ocean liner, could reasonably be expected ever to reach its destination, and that only a dunce would bank on it. There was nothing I could do about it. After hanging up, I called Pan-Atlantic, and was told that Flight 193 was expected to arrive on schedule. As I got up to put the mail on Wolfe's desk, the phone rang, and I sat down and got it.
'Nero Wolfe's office, Archie Goodwin speaking.'
'This is Archie Goodwin?'
'Right.'
'This is Sarah Jaffee, Mr. Goodwin.'
'So it is, by the voice. Good morning.'
'Good morning. I wanted-how are you?'
'I'm fine. And you?'
'I'm fine too. I just had my breakfast and I wanted to phone you. There was no place at the table but mine.'
'Good. In the long run that'll save a lot of breakage on dishes.'
'It will save more than that.' A pause. 'You took the coat and hat with you.'
'I did, and for God's sake don't tell me you want them back. I disposed of them.'
'I'll never want them back.' She sounded quite positive. 'When I went to the hall, long after you had left, and saw that the coat and hat were gone, I cried like a baby. When I quit crying I was scared. I was afraid I had been crying because the coat and hat were gone, but then I realized that wasn't it, only I didn't know what it was. Anyhow I quit worrying about why I had cried because I knew one thing for certain-I knew I was glad the coat and hat were gone, and I knew you had done a wonderful thing for me after the way I acted. I guess you understood why I acted like that. I'm a terrible coward, I always have been. I'm such a coward that three times yesterday afternoon when I started to phone you I simply couldn't make my finger turn the dial.'
'You could have-'
'No, please! Let me finish or I won't. I slept better than I have for a long time-I don't know when. I had a wonderful sleep! And while I was eating breakfast, there where you were with me yesterday, I realized how it was. I realized that I had to do anything you asked me to do, anything-only of course not-I mean, anything you
'I told you yesterday.'
'I know, but I don't remember it very well.'
I explained it carefully, but it didn't seem that she listened carefully, from a couple of questions she asked, so I explained it again. She said she would be at the office at eleven o'clock. I suggested that she bring her own lawyer, and she said she didn't want to tell him about it because he might not approve and she didn't want to argue with him. I didn't insist, since Nathaniel Parker was going to be asked to act on her behalf, and she couldn't possibly do any better.
She warned me, 'I don't think I'm still a nut, but I'm still a coward, so I'm pretty brave to do this and I hope you know it.'
I told her that I did and fully appreciated it.
