relevant facts: the records of your league are on file in your office at Fem- borough, which is 110 miles from here, and the airplane belonging to Mr. Sturtevant, who takes passengers for hire at the airport at the other end of these grounds, could go there and return in 2 hours. Those are facts.'
Bennett looked slightly bewildered. 'I guess they are. I don't know about the airplane.'
'I do, I've inquired. I've even engaged Mr. Sturtevant's services, tentatively. What I would like to have, sir, before 3 o'clock, are the color pattern sketches of Hickory Caesar Grindon, Willowdale Zodiac, Hawley's Orinoco, Mrs. Lin- vffle's bull whose name I don't know, and Hickory Buckingham Pell. Mr. Sturtevant is ready to leave at a moment's notice. You can accompany him, or Mr. Goodwin can, or you can merely give him a letter.'
Bennett was frowning. 'You mean the original sketches?' 'I understand no others are available. Those on certificates are scattered among the owners.'
Bennett shook his head. 'They can't leave the files, it's a strict rule. They're irreplaceable and we can't take risks.'
'I understand. I said you can go yourself. When they come you can sit me here at this table with them and they can be constantly under your eye. I need only half an hour with them, possibly less.'
'But they mustn't leave the files. Anyhow, I can't get away.'
'This is the favor requested by Mr. Osgood.'
'I can't help it. It… it isn't reasonable.'
Wolfe leaned back and surveyed him. 'One test of in- telligence,' he said patiently, 'is the ability to welcome a singularity when the need arises, without excessive strain. Strict rules are universal. We all have a rule not to go on the street before clothing ourselves, but if the house is on fire we violate it. There is a conflagration here in Crowfield- metaphorically. People are being murdered. It should be ex- tinguished, and the incendiary should be caught. The con- nection between that and the sketches in your files may be hidden to you, but not to me; for that you will have to accept my word. It is vital, it is essential, that I see those sketches. If you won't produce them as a favor to Mr. Osgood, you will do so as obligation to the community. I must see them.'
Bennett looked impressed. But he objected. 'I didn't say you couldn't see them. You can, anybody can, at our office. Go there yourself.'
'Preposterous. Look at me.'
'I don't see anything wrong with you. The airplane will carry you all right.'
'No.' Wolfe shuddered. 'It won't. That's another thing you must accept my word for, that to expect me to get into an airplane would be utterly fantastic. Confound it, you object to violating a minor routine rule and then have the effrontery to suggest-have you ever been up in an airplane?'
'No.'
'Then for heaven's sake try it once. It will be an experi- ence for you. You'll enjoy it. I'm told that Mr. Sturtevant is competent and trustworthy and has a good machine. Get those sketches for me.'
That was really what decided the question, 5 minutes later- the chance of a free airplane ride. Bennett gave in. He made a notation of the sketches Wolfe wanted, made a couple of phone calls, and was ready. I went with him to the landing field; we walked because he wanted to stop at the Guernsey cattle shed on the way. At the field we found Sturtevant, a good-looking kid with a clean face and greasy clothes, warm- ing up the engine of a neat little biplane painted yellow. He said he was set and Bennett climbed in. I backed out of harm's way and watched them taxi across the field, and turn, and come scooting across the grass and lift. I stood tihere until they were up some 400 feet and headed east, and then walked back to the exposition grounds proper, to meet Wolfe at the Methodist tent as arranged. One rift in a gray sky was that I was to get another crack at the fricassee, and after my C. C. P. U. breakfast I had a place for it.
But it wasn't a leisurely meal, for it appeared that we had a program-that is, Wolfe had it and I was to carry it out. After all his gab about violating rules, he kept his intact about the prohibition of business while eating, and since he was in a mood there wasn't much conversation. When the pie had been disposed of and the coffee arrived, he squirmed to a new position on the folding chair and began to lay it out. I was to take the car and proceed to Osgoods, and bathe and change my clothes. Since the house would be full of funeral guests, I was to make myself as unobtrusive as possible, and if Osgood himself failed to catch sight of me at all, so much the better, as I was still.under suspicion of having steered his daughter to a rendezvous with the loathsome Pratt brat. I was to pack our luggage and load it in the car, have the car filled with gas and oil and whatever else it had an appetite for, and report at the room where we had met Bennett not later than 3 o'clock.
'Luggage?' I sipped coffee. 'Poised for flight, huh?' Wolfe sighed. 'We'll be going home. Home.'
'Any stops on the way?'
'Well stop at Mr. Pratt's place.' He sipped. 'By the way, I'm overlooking something. Two things. Have you a memo- randum book with you? Or a notebook?'
'I've got a pad. You know the kind I carry.'
'May I have it? And your pencil. It would be well to use the kind of pencil that is carried, though I think it will never get to microscopes. Thank you.' He frowned at the pad. 'Larger sheets would be better, but this will serve, and it wouldn't do to buy one in Crowfield.' He put the pad and pencil in his pocket 'The second thing, I must have a good and reliable liar.'
'Yes, sir.' I tapped my chest.
'No, not you. Rather, in addition to you.'
'Another liar besides me. Plain or fancy?'
'Plain. But we're limited. It must be one of the three persons who were there when I was standing on that rock in the pasture Monday afternoon.'
'Well.' I pursed my lips and considered. 'Your friend Dave might do for a liar. He reads poetry.'
