point, which I thought was very civilized behavior for a stable hand. He too made the mistake of mentioning cinnamon rolls, but otherwise turned in a perfect score.
When they had gone, more than two hours after midnight, I stood, stretched and yawned good, and told Wolfe, 'Five mighty fine clients. Huh?''
He grunted in disgust and put his hands on the rim of his desk to push his chair back.
'I could sleep on it more productively,' I stated, 'if you would point. Not at Talbott, I don't need that. I'm a better judge of love looks than you are, and I saw him looking at Dorothy, and he has it bad. But the clients? Pohl?'
'He needs money, perhaps desperately, and now he'll get it.'
'Broadyke?'
'His vanity was mortally wounded, his business was going downhill, and he was being sued for a large sum.'
'Dorothy?'
'A daughter. A woman. It could have gone back to her infancy, or it could have been a trinket denied her today.'
'Safford?'
'A primitive romantic. Within three days after he met that girl the fool was eating cinnamon rolls with her at six o'clock in the morning. What about his love look?'
I nodded. 'Giddy.'
'And he saw Mr. Keyes strike the girl with his riding crop.'
'Not strike her, poke her.'
'Even worse, because more contemptuous. Also
Curtains for Three 101
the girl had persuaded him that Mr. Keyes was persisting in a serious injustice to her.'
'Okay, that'll do. How about her?'
'A woman either being wronged or caught wronging another. In either case, unhinged.'
'Also he poked her with his crop.'
'No,' Wolfe disagreed. 'Except in immediate and urgent retaliation, no woman ever retorts to physical violence from a man in kind. It would not be womanly. She devises subtleties.' He got to his feet. 'I'm sleepy.' He started for the door.
Following, I told his back, 'I know one thing, I would collect from every damn one of them in advance. I can't imagine why Cramer wanted to see them again, even Talbott, after a whole week with them. Why don't he throw in and draw five new cards? He's sore as a pup. Shall we phone him?'
'No.' We were in the hall. Wolfe, heading for the elevator to ascend to his room on the second floor, turned. 'What did he want?'
'He didn't say, but I can guess. He's at a dead stop in pitch-dark in the middle of a six corners, and he came to see if you've got a road map.'
I made for the stairs, since the elevator is only four by six, and with all of Wolfe inside, it would already be cramped.
VII
'Forty trump,' Orrie Gather said at 10:55 Wednesday morning.
I had told them the Keyes case had knocked on our door and we had five suspects for clients, and that was all. Wolfe had not seen fit to tell me what their errands
102 Rex Stout
would be, so I was entertaining at cards instead of summarizing the notebooks for them. At eleven sharp we ended the game, and Orrie and I shelled out to Saul, as usual, and a few minutes later the door from the hall opened and Wolfe entered. He greeted the two hired hands, got himself installed behind his desk, rang for beer, and asked me, 'You've explained things to Saul and Orrie, of course?'
'Certainly not. For all I knew it's classified.'
He grunted and told me to get Inspector Cramer. I dialed the number and had more trouble getting through than usual, finally had Cramer and signaled to Wolfe, and, since I got no sign to keep off, I stayed on. It wasn't much of a conversation.
'Mr. Cramer? Nero Wolfe.'
'Yeah. What do you want?'
'I'm sorry I was busy last evening. It's always a pleasure to see you. I've been engaged in the matter of Mr. Keyes' death, and it will be to our mutual interest for you to let me have a little routine information.'
'Like what?'
'To begin with, the name and number of the mounted policeman who saw Mr. Keyes in the park at ten minutes past seven that morning. I want to send Archie--'
'Go to hell.' The connection went.
Wolfe hung up, reached for the beer tray which Fritz had brought in, and told me, 'Get Mr. Skinner of the
