himself.
I shook my liead. 'Don't do it, Basil,' I said regretfully. 'I'm not a wise guy exactly, but I'm a tightwad. If you go on working up indignation at yourself because my eye is so much quicker than your hand, you might get so upset you would actually offer to make a bet on it, and I would have to refuse. As a matter of fact, you are extremely good, both at manipu- lating the bean and at getting upset, but the currency you saw in the wallet is not my own, and even if it was I'm a tightwad.'
'It don't hurt to try, does it? I just want to see-'
'No, I don't lather.'
He cheerfully put the spoons and the bean away, and the friendship was saved.
It began to get dark in the cell, and after a while the lights were turned on. Somehow that only made it gloomier, since there was no light in the cell itself. The only way I could have read the paper, except for the headlines, which were screaming murder, would have been to hold it up against the bars of the door to catch the light from the corridor, so I gave it up and devoted myself to Basil. He was certainly a good-natured soul, for he had been nabbed after only one day's work at the exposition and expected to be fined 50 samoleons on the morrow, but I suppose if you embrace spoon- bean as a career you have to be a philosopher to begin with. The inside of my nose was beginning to smart from the atmo- sphere. In a cell across the corridor someone started to sing in a thin tenor, I'm wearing my heart away for you, it cries out may your love be true, and from further down the line groans sounded, interrupted by a voice like a file growling, 'Let him sing, let him sing, what the hell, it's beautiful.'
Basil shrugged. 'Just bums,' he said tolerantly.
My wrist watch said 10 minutes to 8 when footsteps stopped at our address again, a key was turned in the lock, and the door swung open. A keeper I hadn't seen before stood in the gap and said, 'Goodwin? You're wanted.' He stepped aside to let me out, relocked the door, and let me precede him down the corridor. 'Warden's office,' he grunted.
Three men were standing in the office: Nero Wolfe, under self-imposed restraint, Frederick Osgood, scowling, and the warden, looking disturbed. I told them good evening. Osgood said, 'Come on, OUie, well step outside.' The warden mut- tered something about the rules, Osgood got impatient and brusque, and out they went.
Wolfe stood and looked at me with his lips compressed. 'Well?' he demanded. 'Where were your wits?'
'Sure,' I said bitterly, 'brazen it out. Wits my eye. Finger- prints on the wallet. I bribed the shed attendant with ten bucks of Jimmy Pratt's money, which I'll explain to you some day if I don't rot in this dungeon. But chiefly, a deputy sheriff says that this morning at the hotel he heard Bronson tell somebody in New York on the telephone that a man named Goodwin poked him in the jaw and took a receipt away from him. Ha ha ha. Did you ever hear anything so droll? Even so, they don't think I'm a murderer. They only think I'm reticent. They're going to break my will. Of course if I had taken a receipt from Bronson and if they should find it-'
Wolfe shook his head. 'Since you didn't, they can't. Which reminds me…'
His hand went into his pocket and came out again with my card case in it. I took it and inspected it, saw that it contained its proper items and nothing else, and put it where it belonged.
'Thanks. No trouble finding it?'
'None. It was quite simple. I had a talk with Mr. Waddell after you left and told him of my interview with Mr. Bronson last evening whatever I thought might be helpful. Then he went, and I telephoned the courthouse and could learn nothing. I found myself marooned. Finally I succeeded in locating Mr. Osgood, and his daughter came for me. She had been questioned, but not, I imagine, with great severity- except by her father. Mr. Osgood is difficult. He suspects you of arranging the meeting between his daughter and Mr. Pratt's nephew. God knows why. Watch him when he comes back in here; he might even leap at you. He agreed to con- trol himself if I would question you about it.'
'Good. You came to question me. I was wondering what you came for.'
'For one thing…' He hesitated, which was rare. He went on, 'For one thing, I came to bring that package for you. The Osgood housekeeper kindly prepared it.'
I looked and saw a four-bushel bundle, wrapped in brown paper, on a table. 'Saws and rope ladders?' I demanded.
He said nothing. I went and tore some of the paper off and found that it contained a pillow, a pair of blankets, and sheets. I returned to confront Wolfe.
'So,' I said. 'So that's the way it is. I believe you men- tioned wits a minute ago?'
He muttered ferociously, 'Shut up. It has never happened before. I have telephoned, I have roared and rushed head- long, and Mr. Waddell cannot be found. Since I learned you were detained-he's deliberately hiding from me, I'm convinced of it. The judge won't set bail without the con- currence of the District Attorney. We don't want bail any- way, Pfui! Bail for my confidential assistant! Waiti Wait till I find him!'
'Uh-huh. You wait at Osgood's, and I wait in a fetid cell with a dangerous felon for a mate. By heaven, I will play spoon-bean with your money. As for the package you kindly brought, take it back to the housekeeper. God knows how long I'll be here, and I don't want to start in by getting a reputa- tion as a sissy. I can take it, and it looks like I'm going to.'
'You spoke of money. That was my second reason for coming.'
'I know, you never carry any. How much do you want?'
'Well… twenty dollars. I want to assure you, Archie-'
'Don't bother.' I got out the expense wallet and handed him a bill. 'I can assure you that I shall come out of here with bugs-'
'Once when I was working for the Austrian government I was thrown into jail in Bulgaria-'
I strode to the door and pulled it open and bellowed into the hall: 'Oh, warden! I'm escaping!'
