'Mr. Osgood, please.' Wolfe keyed it up. 'I warned you that a murder investigation is of necessity intrusive and im- pertinent. Either bear it or abandon it. If you resent the vul- garity of Mr. Goodwin's jargon I don't blame you, but noth- ing can be done about it. If you resent his disclosure of facts, nothing can be done about that either except to drop the inquiry. We have to know things. What about your son's en- gagement to marry Miss Pratt?'
'I never heard of it. He never mentioned it. Neither did my daughter, and she would have known of it; she and Clyde were very close to each other. I don't believe it.'
'You may, I think, now. My assistant is careful about facts. What about the entanglement with Miss Rowan?'
'That… yes.' As badly as Osgood's head needed a rest, it was a struggle for him to remove the ducal coronet. 'You understand this is absolutely confidential.'
'I doubt it. I suspect that at least a hundred people in New York know more about it than you do. But what do you know?'
'I know that about a year ago my son became infatuated with the woman. He wanted to marry her. She's wealthy, or her father is. She's a sex maniac. She wouldn't marry him. If she had she would have ruined him, but she did that anyway, or she was doing it. She got tired of him, but her claws were in him so deep he couldn't get them out, and there was no way of persuading him to act like a man. He wouldn't come home; he stayed in New York because she was there. He wasted a lot of my money and I cut off his income entirely, but that didn't help. I don't know what he has been living on the past four months, but I suspect my daughter has been helping him, though I decreased her allowance and forbade it. I went to New York in May and went to see the Rowan woman, and humiliated myself, but it did no good. She's a damned strumpet.'
'Not by definition. A strumpet takes money. However… I see, at this point, no incentive for Miss Rowan to murder him. Miss Pratt… it might be. She was jilted, and she is muscular. Mortification could simmer in a woman's breast a long time, though she doesn't look it. When did your son arrive here from New York?'
'Sunday evening. My daughter and his friend Bronson rode up with him.'
'Had you expected him?'
'Yes. He phoned from New York Saturday night.'
'Was Miss Rowan already at Mr. Pratt's place?'
'I don't know. I didn't know she was there until your man told me last night, when I went over there.'
'Was she, Archie?' I shook my head. 'No sale. I was working on another case at lunch.'
'It doesn't matter. I'm only clearing away rubbish, and I doubt if it amounts to more than that.' Back at Osgood: 'Why did your son come after so long an absence? What did he say?'
'He came-' Osgood stopped. Then he went on, 'They came to be here for the exposition.'
'Why did he come, really?'
Osgood glared and said, 'Damn it.'
'I know, Mr. Osgood. We don't usually hang our linen on the line till it has been washed, but you've hired me to sort it out. Why did your son come to see you? To get money?'
'How did you know that?'
'I didn't. But men so often need money; and you had stopped your son's income. Was his need general or specific?'
'Specific as to the sum. He wanted $10,000.'
'Oh.' Wolfe's brows went up a trifle. 'What for?'
'He wouldn't tell me. He said he would be in trouble if he didn't get it.' Osgood looked as if it hurt where the coronet had been. 'I may as well… he had used up a lot of money during his affair with that woman. I found out in May that he had taken to gambling, and that was one reason I cut him off. When he asked for $10,000 I suspected it was for a gam- bling debt, but he denied it and said it was something more urgent. He wouldn't tell me what.'
'Did you let him have it?'
'No. I absolutely refused.'
'He was insistent?'
'Very. We… there was a scene. Not violent, but damned unpleasant. Now…' Osgood set his jaw, and looked at space. He muttered with his teeth clamped, 'Now he's dead. Good God, if I thought that $10,000 had anything to do-'
'Please, sir. Please. Let's work. I call your attention to a coincidence which you have probably already noticed: the bet your son made yesterday afternoon with Mr. Pratt was for $10,000. That raises a question. Mr. Pratt declined to make a so-called gentleman's wager with your son unless it was un- derwritten by you. I understand that he telephoned you to explain the difficulty, and you guaranteed payment by your son if he lost. Is that correct?'
'Yes.'
'Well.' Wolfe frowned at his two empty bottles. 'It seems a little inconsistent… first you refuse to advance $10,000 needed urgently by your son to keep him out of trouble, and then you casually agree on the telephone to underwrite a bet he makes for that precise sum.'
'There was nothing casual about it.'
