'Nuts.'
'I agree. Let's keep this frankly hostile. I shouldn't have asked about shaving, I should have come right out and asked what I want to know, how close were you to him?'
'Two hundred and seventy feet.'
'Oh, you've measured it?'
'I've paced it. The question came up.'
'Would you mind showing me the spot? Where he was and where you were?'
'Yes, I'd mind, but I've got orders.'
The courteous thing would have been for him to lead his horse and walk with me, so he didn't do that. He mounted his big bay and rode into the park, with me tagging along behind; and not only that, he must have given it a private signal that they mustn't be late. I never saw a horse walk so fast. He would have loved to lose me and blame it on me, or at least make me break into a trot, but I gave my legs the best stretch
Curtains for Three 107
sthey had had in years, bending my elbows and pumping my lungs, and I wasn't more than thirty paces in pounds the rear when he finally came to a stop at the crest of a Ilittle knoll. There were a lot of trees, big and little, off I to the right down the slope, and clumps of bushes were | on the left, but in between there was a good view of a I long stretch of the bridle path. It was almost at a right 'angle to our line of vision, and at its nearest looked | about a hundred yards away.
He did not dismount. There is no easier way in the Pworld to feel superior to a man than to talk to him from f on top of a horse.
Speaking, I handled things so as not to seem out of *breath. 'You were here?' f 'Right here.'
'And he was going north.' f 'Yep.' He gestured. 'That direction.' I 'You saw him. Did he see you?' ; 'Yes. He lifted his crop to me and I waved back. We 'often did that.'
'But he didn't stop or gaze straight at you.'
'He didn't gaze straight or crooked. He was out for
a ride. Listen, brother.' The mounted man's tone indi|!^cated that he had decided to humor me and get it over.
; 'I've been through all this with the Homicide boys. If
you're asking was it Keyes, it was. It was his horse. It
'was his bright yellow breeches, the only ones that
'color around, and his blue jacket and his black derby.
: It was the way he sat, with his shoulders hunched and
j'his stirrups too long. It was Keyes.'
'Good. May I pat your horse?'
'No.'
'Then I won't. It would suit me fine if the occasion arose someday for me to pat you. When I'm dining
108 Rex Stout
with the inspector this evening I'll put in a word for you, not saying what kind.'
I hoofed it out of the park and along Sixty-sixth Street to Broadway, found a drugstore and a phone booth, wriggled onto the stool, and dialed my favorite number. It was Orrie Gather's voice that answered. So, I remarked to myself, he's still there, probably sitting at my desk; Wolfe's instructions for him must be awful complicated. I asked for Wolfe and got him.
'Yes, Archie?'
'I am phoning as instructed. Officer Hefferan is a Goodwin-hater, but I swallowed my pride. On the stand he would swear up and down that he saw Keyes at the place and time as given, and I guess he did, but a good lawyer could shoot it full of ifs and buts.'
'Why? Is Mr. Hefferan a shuttlecock?'
'By no means. He knows it all. But it wasn't a closeup.'
'You'd better let me have it verbatim.'
I did so. By years of practice I had reached the point where I could relay a two-hour conversation, without any notes but practically word for word, and the brief session I had just come from gave me no trouble at all. When I had finished Wolfe said, 'Indeed.'
Silence.
I waited a full two minutes and then said politely, 'Please tell Orrie not to put his feet on my desk.'
In another minute Wolfe's voice came. 'Mr. Pohl has telephoned again, twice, from the Keyes office. He's a jackass. Go there and see him. The address--'
'I know the address. What part of him do I look at?'
'Tell him to stop telephoning me. I want it stopped.'
