some of the others so there would be someone to recognize George Rowley. I guess mother was right when she said I'm like father; I certainly had fantastic ideas, and I'm terribly confident that I'm a very unusual person. My idea at that time was that I wanted to get money from George Rowley as soon as possible, so I could pay that old debt of my father's in California, and then go to Arabia. The reason I wanted to go to Arabia-'
She broke off abruptly, looked startled, and demanded, 'What in the name of heaven started me on that?'
'I don't know.' Wolfe looked patient. 'You're wasting time again. Perry and Muir?'
'Well.' She brushed her hair back. 'Not long after I started to work for Seaboard, Mr. Perry began asking me to go to the theater with him. He said that his wife had been sick in bed for eight years and he merely wanted companionship. I knew he was a multi-millionaire, and I thought it over and decided to become an adventuress. If you think that sounds like a loony kid, don't fool yourself. For lots of women it has been a very exciting and satisfactory career. I never really expected to do anything much with Mr. Perry, because there was no stimulation in him, but I thought I could practice with him and at the same time keep my job. I even went riding with him, long after it got to be a bore. I thought I could practice with Mr. Muir, too, but I was soon sorry I had ever aroused his interest.'
She drew her shoulders in a little, a shade toward the center of her, and let them out again, in delicate disgust. 'It was Mr. Muir that cured me of the idea of being an adventuress, I mean in the classical sense. Of course I knew that to be a successful adventuress you have to deal with men, and they have to be rich, and seeing what Mr. Muir was like made me look around a little, and I realized it would be next to impossible to find a rich man it would be any fun to be adventurous with. Mr. Muir seemed to go practically crazy after he had had dinner with me once or twice. Once he came to my apartment and almost forced his way in, and he had an enormous pearl necklace in his pocketl Of course it was disgusting in a way, but it was even more funny than it was disgusting, because I have never cared for pearls at all. But the worst thing about Mr. Muir is his stubbornness. He's a Scotchman, and apparently if he once gets an idea in his head he can't get it out again-'
Wolfe put in, 'Is Mr. Muir a fool?'
'Why… yes, I suppose he is.'
'I mean as a businessman. A man of affairs. Is he a fool?'
'No. Not that way. In fact, he's very shrewd.'
'Well, you are.' Wolfe sighed. 'You are quite an amazing fool, Miss Fox. You know that Mr. Muir, who is a shrewd man, is prepared to swear out a warrant against you for grand larceny. Do you think that he would consider himself prepared if preparations had not actually been made? Why does he insist on immediate action? So that the preparations may not be interfered with, by design or by mischance. As soon as a warrant is in force against you, the police may search any property of yours, including that item of it where the thirty thousand dollars will be found. Couldn't Mr. Muir have taken it himself from his desk and put it anywhere he wanted to, with due circumspection?'
'Put it…' She stared at him. 'Oh, no.' She shook her head. 'That would be too low. A man would have to be a dirty scoundrel to do that.'
'Well? Who should know better than you, an ex-adventuress, that the race of dirty scoundrels has not yet been exterminated? By the eternal, Miss Fox, you should be tied in your cradle! Where do you live?'
'But, Mr. Wolfe… you could never persuade me…'
'I wouldn't waste time trying. Where do you live?'
'I have a little flat on East Sixty-first Street.'
'And what other items? We can disregard your desk at the office, that would not be conclusive enough. Do you have a cottage in the country? A trunk in storage? An automobile?'
'I have a little car. Nothing else whatever.'
'Did you come here in it?'
'No. It's in a garage on Sixtieth Street.'
Wolfe turned to me. 'Archie. What two can you get here at once?'
I glanced at the clock. 'Saul Panzer in ten minutes. If Fred Durkin's not at the movies, him in twenty minutes. If he is, Orrie Gather in half an hour.'
'Get them. Miss Fox will give you the key to her apartment and a note of authority, and also a note to the garage. Saul Panzer will search the apartment thoroughly. Tell him what he's looking for, and if he finds it bring it here. Fred will get the automobile and drive it to our garage, and when he gets it there go through it, and leave it there. This alone will cost us twenty dollars, twenty times the amount of Miss Fox's retainer. Everything we undertake nowadays seems to be a speculation.'
I got at the telephone. Wolfe opened his eyes on Clara Fox. 'You might learn if Miss Lindquist and Mr. Walsh will care to wash before dinner. It will be ready in five minutes.'
She shook her head. 'We don't need to eat. Or we can go out for a bite.'
'Great hounds and Cerberus!' He was about as dose to a tantrum as he ever got. 'Don't need to eat! In heaven's name, are you camels, or bears in for the winter?'
She got up and went to the front room to get them.
VI
